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Norman Reedus Says Fans Will See Daryl “Go Rogue” in Season 8 of ‘The Walking Dead’

With just weeks until the season 8 premiere, and 100th episode of The Walking Dead’s season 8, we are getting ample cast interviews and we have to say, they’re providing us with more insight now than ever on what we should expect in the upcoming episodes. After an incredibly rough season 7, we can’t wait to see the all-out war in season 8 because, for the first time in a while, we know the good guys have what it takes.

They’ve got their fire back.

When we started season 7, everyone was a target, in fact, until the end of the premiere episode we still expected Negan and Lucille to take another life. We sat, watching through tears because let’s face it – we all cried – and hoped he’d spare the rest of the characters we love. Seeing Abraham and Glenn die was enough on its own.

Then, we had to see the guilt on the face of Daryl as he was taken away, and it didn’t end there. While every single character was affected by the losses and every character was changed after kneeling in front of Negan, Daryl caught the absolute worst.

‘There are definite teams now. People are going to be rooting for one team or the other, and it does have more kick to it than it did. I mean, season 7 was difficult. It was super hard for all of us. But in season 8, the gang’s back together, and it’s full blown right now. It’s A versus B. It’s your home team fighting your biggest rival, so there definitely will be cheerleaders. You know, some of us are going rogue a little bit — like myself. There are a couple of some rogue moments in there.’

Well, we like to consider ourselves pretty awesome cheerleaders and while we do have a soft spot for Negan (we know…it’s impossible) we’re team good guy all the way. Even when our favorite characters go rouge, we’ll just adjust our gear and go rouge with them. When it comes to Daryl, we imagine his ‘going rogue’ will be pretty dramatic.

‘There’s no dilly-dallying with him. There’s no gray area right now with him. He’s on a mission to do one thing, and sometimes for the good of the group, you veer left a little bit, and he’s still veering right. So, like I said, he’s kind of going rogue a little bit in the beginning.’

Daryl has, as Norman said, still been ‘veering right’, and all things considered – he’s held out a lot longer than we think we’d have been able to. Not only does he carry the weight of Glenn’s death on his shoulders, he knows that he was stuck in Negan’s camp for so long that he missed a lot. He was being tortured and struggling to stay alive, but so were the people he loved.

‘It’s very much unfinished business, and when certain people are trying to plot the overall takeover or the overall battle, he’s on one direct mission. I mean, he was tortured last year. He wants his s— back, and he wants to have revenge, and he’s really not listening.’

So, a darker Daryl who has vengeance on his mind? Not that we like the storyline it took to get here but we are on board with him getting his s— back and putting Negan and the Saviors in their places, once and for all.

What do you most hope to see from Daryl in season 8? Are you as excited as we are after reading Norman’s interview? Let us know.