I stopped watching “The Walking Dead” around the time that they committed the unforgivable sin of messing up Glenn/Steven Yeun’s beautiful face, but Carl was a huge part of the series that became one-half of one of its greatest legacies: the Coral! meme (pictured above). It was difficult watching a child character suffer in the world of the walkers, but the good news is that it looks like spending all of that time around people in zombie makeup as a kid didn’t have too much ill effect on Chandler Riggs, who looks fit as a fiddle as a farmer in Hilltop in the finale. Apparently, Riggs was in town and wanted to stop by the set to say hello to some old friends. Showrunner Angela Kang enjoyed having him around and they needed some extras, so she and director Greg Nicotero gave him the go-ahead. Nicotero told EW:
“That was our last day of shooting and Chandler wanted to come visit, and I looked at him and I went, ‘Hey, you. Take that, go stand in the back of that shot.’ It wasn’t planned. I don’t even think we put wardrobe on him. I think he was just wearing whatever he wore when he came to set. We’re just like, ‘Throw him in the background.’ I think we gave him a hat to disguise him a little bit.”
I don’t think the hat really disguises Riggs all that well given that he wore a hat as Carl more than he didn’t, but hey, maybe it was reverse psychology or something. Besides, one former co-star was doing his best to make sure fans noticed.Â