‘Walking Dead’ diversity often overshadowed by rating success

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

Meet Michonne and Tyreese

“[The writers] addressed one of the problems, which is they tended to kill off characters of color before they had the chance to develop,” he remarks. “Partially, I think that’s because they introduced the graphic novel’s two most popular characters of color [Michonne and Tyreese], one this season, the other at the end of last season. These are two of the most popular characters from the graphic novels period.”

“As a fan of those characters, I would have liked to have seen – particularly Tyreese – given a little bit more to do,” he continues. “It seemed that character spent most of this season standing around, and commenting on things that other characters were doing. He wasn’t initiating a lot of action. He wasn’t taking a lot of action. He wasn’t at the center of hardly anything that happened on the show. This is a complaint that fans have had about a previous black character that had been on the show [T-Dog]. They never knew quite what to do with his character.”

Deggans does appear optimistic about the future of Michonne and Tyreese given their “extensive storylines” in the novels. He also suggests the show has integrated both roles more intrinsically into the plotline, though neither has been predominately featured in the more compelling scenes, as he recalls is the case in the books.

“It’s not about who gets killed off, the question is who are the characters centered on?” Deggans observes. “Michonne is arguably the most popular character from the book, and for the first half of the season, she barely said five sentences. Even when she was taking action, we didn’t get to know much about her. And all of that was kind of by design, I understand that, but it had an impact…Given the history that this show has of marginalized characters of color, people were concerned.”

A question of demographics

Another complaint Deggans addresses is the fact The Walking Dead is set outside Atlanta, yet the demographic of that region doesn’t seem accurately depicted by the cast. As he notes, results from the last U.S. census showed Georgia has the largest black population: 30 percent of residents are African-American, and 51 percent of the population in Atlanta is black.

Deggans says he doesn’t see a proportional mix on the series, which he feels is “odd.”

“Even when they were in Atlanta, they didn’t have nearly as many black zombies as you would expect, and their biggest interaction with a group of survivors, they were all Latino,” he says.

Dickerson disagrees.

“Oh, there’s black zombies in there, we see black zombies all over the place,” the director counters. “There’s black zombies; there’s Asian zombies. In my episode, there were quite a few.”

The show is far from over

Dickerson also contends that, thus far, the black leads in the show have been compelling and central to the story, and that, with Tyreese and Michonne gaining prominence, the stage has been set as a wider platform for African-American actors.

“You have a strong black character in Tyreese, his sister, and we have a strong black character in Michonne,” he points out. “Michonne, as a character, has grown as she’s gotten to know the main characters in the group. She was a person who kept her feelings and everything about herself close to the vest, but she’s been allowed to open up more.”

Referencing the finale, he adds, “You saw a lot of people of color climbing out of that bus and going into the prison. And so you’ll be seeing more of those people next season.”

Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @CourtGarcia