Why did Melissa McBride quit The Walking Dead spin-off series? Cause explored

The supposed future star of The Walking Dead's Daryl-Carol spinoff, Melissa McBride, will not be continuing her role after the final season of the show airs. McBride portrayed fan-favorite Carol Peletier in the popular AMC franchise and rose to prominence over the past ten seasons after starting as a recurring character in the first one.

AMC announced McBride's departure with a long press release, stating that the next installment of the proposed spinoff is set in Europe, and McBride is unable to relocate at the moment. Fans will be disappointed with the news, but the yet-unnamed series will perhaps continue its shoot with a new Carol Peletier.

However, you can still catch Carol Peletier in the season finale of the AMC show.

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Why did Melissa McBride quit The Walking Dead spinoff?

The Walking Dead has become a major franchise over the past few years. With spinoffs already airing, and many more planned after the original show's end, the yet un-named Carol-Daryl spinoff was one of the most anticipated shows from the universe.

The Carol-Daryl spinoff will, however, be filmed in Europe, with a premiere date set for 2023. Melissa could not move to Europe at this point and hence decided to quit the spinoff series.

A statement from Universal explained the cause of her departure. It read:

"Melissa McBride has given life to one of the most interesting, real, human and popular characters in ‘Walking Dead’ Universe. Unfortunately, she is no longer able to participate in the previously announced spin-off focused on the Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier characters, which will be set and filmed in Europe this summer and premiere next year."

It further continued:

Relocating to Europe became logistically untenable for Melissa at this time. We know fans will be disappointed by this news, but ‘The Walking Dead’ Universe continues to grow and expand in interesting ways and we very much hope to see Carol again in the near future."

Both the characters in the proposed spinoff, Carol and Daryl, started as side characters but rose to prominence over the course of the show. McBride and Norman Reedus signed a huge deal in 2018 with the channel that included huge pay raises for both stars and covered three years of the franchise as a whole.

This is not the first big departure in the franchise. Andrew Lincoln had previously left the show to work on a series of feature films by Universal.

The latest episode of The Walking Dead is now streaming on AMC Plus.