During Daryl and Beth's buddy-up in season four of The Walking Dead, we were all hoping a romance might blossom, but it turns out we could've been reading Norman Reedus' crossbow-wielding tough guy all wrong.
As season five gets closer, a new report has rocked fans of TWD. Comic creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman has teased that our favourite character (sorry Rick) could be gay.
According to Comicbook.com, in the letter section of the this week's The Walking Dead comic book issue Kirkman responded to a fan question which asked if the possibility of Daryl being gay had been considered.
Is Daryl gay? (AMC)
"All I can say is that it's been discussed. We have very specific ideas about Daryl's sexuality (or the seeming lack thereof), and if there's ever a quiet period in the show where he's not consistently distracted by crossbowing...we'll tackle it in the show," Kirkman wrote.
Say what?! To be fair it all kind of makes sense. While the likes of Maggie and Glenn have found love, Daryl has never got romantically involved with anyone in the last four seasons.
Norman Reedus' character got close to Beth (Emily Kinney) last season (AMC)
He has been getting closer though to both Beth (Emily Kinney) and Carol's (Melissa McBride) characters. During Comic Con, Norman touched on Daryl and Beth's friendship, telling fans of that 'Unhappy Hour' episode from season four:
"Over the [course] of the episode I was able to build a trust and open up to someone and build something with Beth."
"I hope so," Emily said when asked if she wants their relationship to continue growing. "I think they definitely have a certain connection that has grown from surviving together. They have gotten to know each other on a different level that's really special, whether its friendship or something else. It's a deeper relationship."
Daryl and Carol also have a close friendship (AMC)
And Norman seems to be pushing for a bit of action soon, also joking at Comic Con that he's "hoping for a threesome with Melissa and Emily."
Interestingly fans have pointed to similarities between Daryl and the Paul Monroe/Jesus character from the comics, a bit of a badass like Daryl who also happens to be gay...
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