Warning: Contains spoilers
“The Walking Dead” returned in dramatic fashion for its Season 5 midseason premiere Sunday night — but the latest death has some fans of the show calling foul.
The AMC post-apocalyptic drama, typically applauded for its range of diverse characters who break stereotypes, has seemingly reached critical mass for its nonwhite, nonmale survivors — and now has no choice but to kill them off.
Leading in to Sunday night’s episode, of the 15 surviving members of the group, only five were white males (one of whom is a child, one’s a ginger, and another has a mullet — all traits that must count for some sort of diversity, right?). Since fans would revolt if either Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) or Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) were killed off anytime soon, the producers seemingly have no choice but to start killing off minorities.
So when fan favorite Tyreese (Chad Coleman) succumbed to a walker bite in the final minutes of the latest episode, Twitter erupted with dissatisfied viewers complaining that, per usual, the black guy was the first to die (and during Black History Month, of all times).
But after looking at the rest of the roster, did “The Walking Dead” really have any other options?