In the multimedia franchise that is The Walking Dead, characters both universally loved and widely hated come and go with nary a moment’s notice, driving home the violent and deadly world Rick and his band of survivors are living in. But in AMC’s hit television show of the same name, more than a few original characters were introduced that were completely divorced from the comic’s story, with the series creator finally revealing why the fan-favorite hero of Daryl Dixon never made it into comics!

A character introduced in the third episode of the first season of The Walking Dead titled “Tell It to the Frogs,” Daryl Dixon, portrayed by the always stellar Norman Reedus, was one of the first original characters created for the series alongside his antagonistic brother, Merle.

Somehow surviving until the final episode of The Walking Dead’s eleven-season run, Daryl is a consistent ally and soldier in the fight against the undead and the human threats plaguing his group, making him a perfect candidate for making the jump to comics. But thanks to the “team effort” poured into creating Daryl for the show on top of the fictional life he took all his own as the series went on, creator Robert Kirkman simply couldn’t bring himself to introduce the character into his almost 200-issue zombie epic, keeping Daryl firmly stuck on the small screen.

Daryl Was Too Unique To The Walking Dead Show To Cross Into Comics

Giving a reason for Daryl’s exclusion from the comic in the “Letter Hacks” column of The Walking Dead Deluxe #67, by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Dave McCaig, Kirkman is asked “…were there any plans to introduce the tv characters into the comics or were they strictly going to be tv exclusive characters?” Answering that Daryl was too much of a composite effort of various creatives working on the show — including actor Norman Reedus — and that it wouldn’t have been right to co-opt their work for his own story, Kirkman further explains that he “never wanted the show to change the comic,” putting the nail in the coffin for a comic version of Daryl ever coming to pass.

Technically having a hand in creating Daryl and his brother for the show, Kirkman, despite his love for the character, goes on to say there were “logistical issues that barred bringing TV show characters into the comics,” making the transition of mediums not worth the effort or headache to make happen. But leave it to Kirkman to still give fans some kind of false hope, as the introduction of the Negan-affiliated comic character of Dwight was a deliberate misdirect to make readers think he was the book’s interpretation of Daryl, a character who eventually went on to make a live-action debut in the AMC series right alongside Daryl himself!

Dwight Was A Daryl Misdirect In The Walking Dead Comics

So while Daryl was never intended to make it onto the page to slice and dice the undead hordes with the rest of Rick’s comic crew, fans can still check out his continued exploits on the small screen in the appropriately titled The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiering soon. Luckily for fans, The Walking Dead comic has more than enough characters to pour over and get attached to in Daryl Dixon’s stead — especially the ones that got the short end of the zombie poking stick in a television universe that’s still going strong today.