Paul “Jesus” Rovia isn’t exactly what one would call Carl’s closest ally on The Walking Dead.
Now that Carl’s days are numbered – quite literally, as AMC’s mid-season premiere is booked in for Sunday, February 25th – viewers have come to expect a strong reaction from the likes of Rick Grimes, Maggie and even Daryl Dixon, and that’s despite the fact that he was in no way responsible for the actual bite.
However, while soliciting questions about season 8’s return, Tom Payne divulged a little too much about Jesus and his own interpretation of Carl’s exit. Fast forward to now, and the actor has clarified those comments via ComicBook.com:
I kind of rocked the boat a little bit on a Q and A recently where someone asked me about what Jesus thinks about Carl’s death and I was like, ‘Well, Jesus doesn’t really know Carl, and I’m not sure if he really is that impacted by it, to be honest. He spent about as much time, probably more time, with Glenn than he spent with Carl. He’s had that, and he’s just always been more about the people left behind, like Maggie and Sasha and Enid.
Because although he has ties to Rick Grimes and his fellow survivors, it seems Jesus isn’t all that bothered about Carl and his imminent demise, and instead chooses to adopt a more impersonal stance.
His view of the whole thing would be from a more removed standpoint. Obviously, my view of the whole thing is different and I have a wide-ranging understanding of who is involved, because I’ve watched the show, but Jesus just met these people. In the world that we live in in the show, people are gone. That’s the nature of the world that he lives in, and he’s very used to actually being on his own and not being in the group and not getting close to that many people. As far as he’s concerned, it’s a hazard of living in that post-apocalyptic world that we all have to deal with. The most important thing is moving forward.
Carl’s journey officially comes to an end when season 8 of The Walking Dead returns this Sunday. And though he has exactly no hard feelings about his character’s grisly fate, Chandler Riggs clearly has one eye on Hollywood’s movie scene, having already auditioned for Han Solo and Spider-Man.