'The Walking Dead' Season 6 SPOILERS: Will Melissa McBride's Carol Be Killed Off?

It's hard to imagine AMC's The Walking Dead Season 6 without characters like Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) or Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride). As the strongest characters in the show, it may be a long time before they get killed off in Season 6. However, executive producer Greg Nicotero has just admitted that one of these characters was supposed to die back in Season 3!

Nicotero recently spoke to SFX Magazine (via Comic Book Resources), where he revealed that T-Dog (IronE Singleton) was originally not supposed to get killed off in the third season.

"Not a lot of people know that when we were shooting Season 3, in the episode where T-Dog died, there was a moment where Carol was going to die in lieu of T-Dog's character," Nicotero revealed.

In the episode Killer Within, Carol and T-Dog get separated from their group when a group of walkers somehow finds their way into the prison. T-Dog sacrifices himself so Carol can escape, but the group assumes that she is killed by the walkers as well. It is later revealed in the episode Hounded that Carol hid in a solitary confinement cell and is saved by Daryl (Norman Reedus).

But why would the producers even consider killing off one of the best characters in TWD? Nicotero admits that there was a time when showrunner Scott Gimple wasn't sure what to do with Carol.

"At that point, there was some concern in the writers' room that they didn't know where to take her character," he said. "So the fact that Scott Gimple and the writers have been able to craft this amazing journey for her just goes to show that there is a tremendous amount of story to tell for a lot of these characters."

Carol's story in the show is significantly different to her fate in the comic books. Whereas comic book Carol is weak and decides to give up by committing suicide, the TV Carol probably has the best character development from abused housewife to Rick Grimes' strongest ally (other than Daryl, of course). TV Carol is also the longest surviving female character, having been a member of Rick's group since the first season.

See more of Carol when the second half of The Walking Dead Season 6 returns to AMC on February 14.