Former “The Walking Dead” star Michael Cudlitz said in a recent interview that two of the show’s brutal deaths were too much for television audiences.
The opening episode of the show’s seventh season featured the character Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) killing characters Abraham (Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun).
“Both deaths were particularly graphic, with Glenn’s eye popping out as in the comic, and the combination of the cliffhanger and the brutality drew significant fan backlash,” according to The Huffington Post.
Cudlitz agreed that the deaths went to far in an interview with the “Talk Dead to Me” podcast.
“I always think it was a bridge too far, personally. I thought it was too much,” Cudlitz said. “Either one of us should have lived a little bit longer because I think it was, people were very affected by it. They said, ‘Oh, my gosh, it was the most graphic brutal deaths. It was murder porn.’ All this stuff.”
In 2013, “The Walking Dead” faced criticism as one of several network shows to not have many parental warnings despite heavy graphic gore, according to the Associated Press.
Outreach from the Parents Television Council helped the show move from a TV-14 rating to TV-MA, though, which required the show to include a warning message.