I guess that, when you're making a show about the death and reanimation of your loved ones, you've got to find ways to cheer up in between takes. That was certainly the case on the set of The Walking Dead, where stars Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus (Rick grimes and Daryl Dixon, respectively), would keep the smiles up with a longstanding prank war. And at New York Comic Con 2024, Walking Dead fans got a special window into just how elaborate those pranks could be.
Some context here: It was Norman Reedus himself who gave us an inside look at the Lincoln/Reedus prankoff, during a panel focused on his own spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. The subject of the prank war came up as executive producer Greg Nicotero talked about what it was like to talk to an actor who knew their character was going to die on the series.
"Do you remember," interjected the Death Stranding actor, "When I was begging everybody to put out a script where Andy [Lincoln] dies?"
When cheers from the audience died down (did these people hate Rick Grimes?), Reedus went on.
"I was just like," Reedus recounted, "'Put out a script, send it to him only.'"
Now, it's unclear as to whether or not Andrew Lincoln ever received a "Rick Dies" script, courtesy of Reedus's mischief. If he had, however, that wasn't even close to the most intricate (or biting) pranks that Reedus had planned out for the face of The Walking Dead franchise, as the actor was happy to explain.
"So," Reedus began, "This was during covid; we were shooting during covid, right? We had to do, like, a million tests. It was a thing. Andy was coming to do something on the show, and so we had a trailer, the medical trailer. I have [producer] Tom Luse make a poster to put in the trailer. The doctor would go, 'OK Andy, come wait in here, and I'll be right back. The poster [was] of a guy giving himself an anal swab."
Now look, if the prank stopped there, it would've been more than enough. But Norman Reedus, God Belss Him, doesn't stop at more than enough.
"And then, I had [Luse] make a giant Q-tip."
When the audience laughter died down, Reedus revealed the only bummer about his legendary prank plan: because of scheduling, it never got to actually happen.
"GoPros were going to go up; I was going to get the whole thing and get [Lincoln] waiting and seeing the poster [...] But then he couldn't make it to set, and the joke fell apart. But it was such a good one."
A good one indeed. Somebody get those two on another project that could use some levity. I want to see what else they have planned.
