How Old Is Carl Grimes?

For the longest time in The Walking Dead, Carl Grimes was the only child among his group of survivors. He never got the chance to live a normal childhood like the adults in his life, and the circumstances of the apocalypse matured him beyond his years. Yet, the show was never clear on how old Carl actually was. The son of the protagonist Rick Grimes and his wife Lori, Carl was introduced as a fearful, innocent child in the first season of the zombie apocalypse series.

After Season 2, he endured a few rough patches of disobedience and rebellion, leading to memes and fan jokes about Carl Grimes never staying in the house. His death in Walking Dead Season 8 reinforced just how tragic his life was, as he never survived long enough to experience the life his father was trying to build for him. However, the discrepancy surrounding his rapid growth throughout the seasons made The Walking Dead's timeline much more unclear.

Updated on December 2, 2024, by Michael Colwander: One of the most shocking moments in AMC's The Walking Dead was when the show killed off Carl Grimes. Because Carl had survived the duration of the comic series, the show had to accommodate by having stands-in to fill in his shoes. More information has been added about Judith Grimes and Henry Sutton's ages compared to Carl's comic counterpart.

Carl Grimes' Age in The Walking Dead, Explained

According to The Walking Dead Comic, Carl Was 9 at the Start of the Apocalypse

The Walking Dead's television series timeline is more vague than the comics, making it harder to source Carl's age each season. However, Robert Kirkman was much more thorough and added clarity to the comics with the same name. Carl is nine years old in his first appearance in the comics (Issue 2). Unlike his comic counterpart, Carl is 12 years old in the first season of The Walking Dead. It's not uncommon for TV or movie adaptations to push up a character's age: the more mature an actor is, the easier it is to guide them through a complex production.

Carl Grimes' Age Throughout The Walking Dead TV Series:

With Lori's pregnancy and time well-spent on the road, the gap between Seasons 1 and 3 is roughly a year, making Carl 13. This means that as soon as he hit the teenage years, he had to watch his mother die and kill a young boy. But the tragedies don't stop there, as Carl goes through multiple growth spurts. There's a rough six-month jump between the Season 3 finale and Season 4 premiere, signifying the growing community at the prison and Carl hitting a rebellious phase in his youth. At that point in The Walking Dead, he was 13–14 years old.

From here, the timeline is extremely condensed. Seasons 5-8 represent the Alexandria and Savior arcs of the series, which surprisingly take place in under six months. A lot happens while surviving an apocalypse on the road. During this time frame, Carl was taken hostage by cannibals, met Enid, the girl he had his first and last relationship with, and lost his eye to a vengeful gunshot wound. Even with a vague time jump after the mid-season finale of Season 6, not much time has passed. Considering Season 8 takes place in just under a week, it's not hard to pinpoint how old Carl was when he died. Carl was still around 14–15 years old when he was bitten and passed three days later, leading to one of the most tragic Walking Dead deaths.

Why Didn't Carl Look His Age in Later Seasons?

Carl Grimes Actor Chandler Riggs Was 18 Years Old When He Left The Walking Dead

It might be heartbreaking to realize that Carl died not long after his mother, but it's also more surprising than anything else. There were five seasons and dozens of deaths between Lori and Carl's death. Carl's actor, Chandler Riggs, visibly aged so much during those seasons that it appears time works differently on the show. There's always that risk of having children on a show where time passes so slowly; an adult actor can easily hide their actual age, whereas a child's age is much more exposed.

It's why no one questions why Lauren Cohan was playing a 22-year-old in Season 2, even though she was nearing her 30s. Years after his death, Carl's age is still widely debated within The Walking Dead fandom. The reality is, Carl's age never really mattered. He was just a kid thrust into a world that wasn't built for him to survive. No matter how old he was, Riggs pulled off the naivety, uneasiness, and courage that made Carl The Walking Dead's unspoken hero until his final breath.

How Old Would Carl Have Been If He Had Lived?

Carl Would've Been 25 Years Old Had He Survived The Walking Dead

The shocking and unexpected factor surrounding Carl's death created so much controversy that fans are still upset about it. Carl was meant to carry Rick's legacy and, by extension, The Walking Dead's legacy. The series partly made up for it by aging up Judith Grimes, his younger sister, and molding her into a character worthy of following in her father's footsteps, but it's hard to shake the idea that Carl could've easily done the same.

Hypothetically, if Carl had lived until the end of AMC's The Walking Dead, he would've been roughly 25 years old. Season 9 takes place after a year and a half, and another time jump of a whopping six years occurs in the middle of the same season. The Walking Dead series finale jumps an entire year to show the progress made between the Commonwealth and Alexandria. At this point, Carl would've been an adult who could've stepped up in his father's shoes after his disappearance.

This leads to Rick and Michonne's highly praised spinoff, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The spinoff takes place over several years, but its present-day setting presumably takes place shortly after the events of Season 11 in The Walking Dead's overall timeline. At this point, Michonne reunites with Rick at the Civic Republic, and there's a not-so-subtle hint in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon that Rick and Michonne may have already returned home. It's safe to conclude that Carl would've been 25-27 at this point and would've exhibited his father's determination and altruism to either lead Alexandria to prosperity or join Michonne or Daryl to bring Rick to freedom.

Carl Grimes Was 39 Years Old By the End of The Walking Dead Comics

Carl Grimes Takes on the Role of a Leader Following His Father's Death

After Rick died in The Walking Dead comics, Carl at least lives until he's 39 years old, and even has a child with Sophia Peletier, another character gone too soon in the show. Kirkman always made it blatantly clear that Carl was supposed to take the role of the leader when Rick died: the entire comic feels like a huge lesson to Carl, who seeks his independent self while following the steps of his father.

Carl Grimes' Age Throughout The Walking Dead Comics

It was a huge disappointment that The Walking Dead TV show decided to discard the idea that was the foundation of the source material for pure shock value. Carl died in a moment of decline in the show when the Negan arc seemed to drag endlessly, making his anticlimactic zombie-bite death all the more revolting. On the other hand, the fact that Judith survives the prison arc in the show suggests that the showrunners had Carl's death in mind for a long time. In the comics, Judith dies as an infant alongside Lori in an attack by the Governor, one of The Walking Dead's most sinister villains. The problem is that Rick and Judith's father-and-daughter relationship was never explored as deeply as Rick and Carl's. In the comics, Carl's young age doesn't protect him from the hardened world but rather forces him to mature rapidly and face the person he wishes to become.

By the time he's a teenager, Carl lost his right eye after accidentally being shot by Douglas Monroe. His resilience to these setbacks positions him in a leadership role like his father, finally taking on responsibility and determining right from wrong. By the end of the comics' run, which features a 25-year time jump, Carl is 39 years old with a wife and daughter. He's the protagonist of The Walking Dead's final issue. This issue revolves largely around Carl reminiscing about the world that Rick helped build and how the responsibility of leading the people toward a path of prosperity now lies on him. The comics end with Carl reading stories about his father to his daughter, fulfilling what Kirkman's vision for The Walking Dead had been all about.

How Do Judith Grimes and Henry Sutton's Ages Compare to Carl's?

Judith and Henry Were the Closest Characters to Carl After His Death

Carl had a bright future in the TV series if the comics were anything to go by. It was Carl, not Henry Sutton, who dated Lydia. Although Henry's relationship with Lydia is a little different compared to Henry's relationship with her in the show. In the show, their relationship was depicted as a Romeo & Juliet type of romance whereas in the comic, their relationship signified that Carl has firmly entered his teenage years.

Henry and Judith's Ages Throughout The Walking Dead TV Series:

Henry is a character unique to the show but was introduced in The Walking Dead Season 7 during the "All Out War" storyline. Henry was 10 years old, which is the same age Carl was at that point in time in the comics. After the war, there was a time jump. In the show, this time jump was only a year and a half while in the comics it was three. After that time, Carl in the comics was 13 while Henry in the show was 11. However, after Rick departed from the show, there was yet another time jump. This time six years. At the start of the Whisperers' arc, Henry was 17 while Carl in the comics was still 13. Henry didn't survive past the Whisperers' arc, as he was the shocking final head on Alpha's border.

Henry wasn't the only pseudo-Carl in the show. His own sister, Judith, filled in to a degree. Judith never took on any of Carl's storylines, but she is a Grimes who did wear his iconic hat given to him by his father. A hat that she later gives to her brother R.J. is the closest parallel between Judith and comic Carl, storywise, is perhaps the bond she developed with Negan just as Carl did in both the comics and the show. Overall, Judith spends much of the series as a baby and toddler. However, after the post-war time jump, Judith plays a notable role as a character. Throughout the Whisperers arc, Judith is nine, so slightly younger than Carl in the comics. During the final story arc with the Commonwealth, Judith is 10 whereas Carl is 14. After the conflict with the Commonwealth ended, there was a two-year time jump in the show, making Judith 12 by the end of the series and her reunion with Rick after The Ones Who Live.

The Walking Dead Universe has yet to adapt the ending to the comics, set after the 25-year time jump. It's expected that it will, along with Rick's death, when it comes time to finally wrap up the spawling TV universe. The big question is how much of Carl's story will carry over to Judith or if any will spill over to R.J. Judith would make sense since viewers are much more familiar with her than R.J. If that's the case, the show universe could wrap up with Judith being in her late-30s just like Carl was with a nearly identical ending. While that wouldn't eliminate the frustration and complexities losing Carl brought to the series, it would be a good opportunity to firmly stick the landing and ensure the journey from beginning to end was fully worth it.