Jon Bernthal says Shane was a Better ‘Apocalyptic’ Leader than Rick in ‘The Walking Dead’
It’s to be expected that when talking about a television series, one that you played a key role in, you’d be a bit partial to the character you played. Be it a good guy, a villain, or someone stuck in the grey area – you gave yourself to the character, and you’re going to want that character to mean something.
This weekend at Walker Stalker Atlanta, Jon Bernthal took the stage for some incredible conversation alongside Scott Wilson and IronE Singleton. From some of the original characters, we got insight into everything from their characters to what they think of the series now, and a lot more in between.
One of those conversations led to Jon Bernthal mentioning Shane and his leadership skills. He didn’t just mention them, in fact, he went on to say that Shane would have made a better leader in this world than Rick Grimes.
He didn’t totally dismiss Rick, in fact, he said that they had a really good dynamic between them and that Rick was very much a natural leader. Shane was more of a loose cannon while Rick had his head on straight, but when the undead overtook the world, things changed.
While Rick has obviously led many people close to him to safety, as much as can be had in their world, some lives have been lost and you have to wonder…could some of his decisions saved some of those lives? The conversation didn’t get that in depth, but Jon did say that Shane was a better-suited leader for dealing with the undead and the way of the world once they took over.
‘Shane was more suited for the apocalypse and for that world, and I think he discovered that first, and I think eventually, he would have found trouble with Rick’s leadership style of thinking about things too much and trying to find a moral answer. Shane really discovered that there was no place for that.‘
.@jonnybernthal – "Shane was a much better leader for the apocalypse world than Rick was." #WSCAtlanta pic.twitter.com/AWOF742qGf
— Crooked Llama (@LlamaCrooked) October 28, 2017
While reactions in person and online were mixed, we can see his point. Shane and Rick had some similarities, sure, but some of the key components of their make up were very different. The core of who they were as people, in their personal and professional lives, were opposite of one another.
We can’t say for certain that there would have been fewer deaths if Shane survived. Quite honestly, we hink there may have been more in the close circle of the group if a battle had broken out between Rick and Shane. All we know for sure is that the storyline would definitely have been different.
It’s interesting to think about what would have happened, though, and how Shane would have dealt with the bumps in the road up to this point. Prepared or not, they’ve faced some circumstances that broke even the strongest of survivors.
Just imagine that battle between Shane and Negan though.
‘…but I knew him’
