If there’s one hallmark of post-apocalyptic fiction, particularly those stories that stem from the zombie sub-genre, it’s priests.
From the symbolism scattered throughout 28 Days Later to Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, there’s usually a religious figure to enhance the existential dread one would associate with the end of days. But with Father Gabriel, The Walking Dead has allowed Seth Gilliam’s supporting player to become a seasoned survivor replete with his own backstory, and though he’s still alive as of season 8, Gilliam recently envisioned Gabriel’s final moments in an interview with TV Guide.
And unsurprisingly, he wants to see the character’s comic book death honored on the small screen:
It was a fantastically operatic death. Hanging upside with broken bones and being slit open and fed upon by an entire herd of walkers I think is definitely a way to go out. In his sleep by a massive coronary would be good. With a warm smile on his face. At the age of 97.
Even if his time on the hit AMC drama is coming to an end, Seth Gilliam takes solace in the fact that his on-screen preacher has lasted so long; in fact, as he admitted in a recent interview with ComicBook.com, he figured Father Gabriel would only appear on The Walking Dead for a grand total of three episodes.
I thought that Father Gabriel would be dead in about three episodes. I thought that he would be a device to get a larger character killed. I thought that it would be Tyreese [Chad L. Coleman]. I had a whole thing planned out in my head where Father Gabriel was going to be surrounded in some way and Tyreese would come to his rescue with the hammer and then wind up getting bitten, and then they lose Tyreese and then Father Gabriel winds up getting eaten anyway.
The Walking Dead season 8 will be back this Sunday, March 11th, with “Dead or Alive Or.”