The biggest moment of 'The Walking Dead' finale was shockingly brief. The showrunner and star know fans may be a bit frustrated.
- Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead" season 10 finale, "A Certain Doom."
- Beta met his end on Sunday's episode when he was killed by Daryl.
- Some fans may be frustrated that the scene between Negan, Daryl, and Beta — three fan favorites — was over before it really even began.
- Ryan Hurst was a bit bummed out by it, telling Insider, "The fact that we didn't really get a firm real good scene together, I think, we were sad about that."
- Showrunner Angela Kang said they didn't want it to feel too similar to the long brawl between Beta and Daryl from earlier in the season.
- "I know some people may have the same frustration, but we felt that it seemed right for where these characters were at," Kang told Insider. "Daryl wanted to be strategic in getting in, Negan kind of helped set it up."
After two seasons, Sunday's "The Walking Dead" finally gave us a scene with Beta, Negan, Daryl together on screen. It should have been a real treat since the actors who play them — Ryan Hurst, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Norman Reedus — are all friends in real life.
But just as it looked like things were about to get exciting, Daryl rushed in and quickly killed Beta before he knew what was happening. For those who were hoping for a long, drawn-out brawl, they didn't get one. The scene ended moments after it began.
If you were frustrated by the too-short scene between the trio, Hurst shares in that disappointment a bit.
"I think we were all kind of a little sad at that part because the three of us are such great friends, hanging out on the weekends all the time, and riding motorcycles every other weekend," Hurst told Insider. "The fact that we didn't really get a firm real good scene together, I think, we were sad about that."
Insider spoke with "TWD" showrunner Angela Kang and Hurst about the scene, why it wasn't longer, and how Kang understands why some fans may be frustrated.
Why the scene wasn't longer: They did a long fight between Beta and Daryl before and he likely would have learned from it.
"It felt like we'd already done a big, knock-down, dragged out, fight between Daryl and Beta and we were like, well, do we do that again?" Kang said. "With these three guys, they're all so good, and it gets hard to do something that doesn't feel like it's just a choreographed fight."
"The entire battle, it was more about strategies back and forth between beta and the herd and our people," Kang add. "Beta's entire power — he's a big, scary guy — but the Whisperers, they derive so much of their strength from using the herd against our people."
Daryl hopefully would have learned from his first fight with Beta that he can't necessarily take him on head-to-head. He's just too big of a guy to match brute force with. Combine that with a sea of walkers and Beta easily could have tossed Daryl to the undead.
It would be more strategic for Daryl to try and end him quickly and silently to avoid attracting the attention of the dead.
"In some ways, Daryl has been waiting ever since Beta kind of beat on him to finish this guy off," Kang said of why Daryl killed Beta so quickly instead of drawing it out.
She recognizes some fans may be disappointed they didn't get an all-out brawl between three fan-favorites.
"In the midst of all of that, that was the decision we made," Kang said. "Hopefully some people like it. I know some people may have the same frustration, but we felt that it seemed right for where these characters were at. Daryl wanted to be strategic in getting in, Negan kind of helped set it up. Beta, in some ways, had lost his power by losing his Alpha and the walkers around him."
Apparently, the short death scene was Norman Reedus' suggestion.
In an interview with Comicbook.com, episode director and executive producer Greg Nicotero said Reedus suggested Daryl should stab Beta.
"Norman had pitched that idea," Nicotero said. "Norman had said, 'Oh, I just should come up with both of my knives and stab him in the eyes. Part of the story arc there is that Beta can't die from those stab wounds. Norman's knives are f---ing 12 inches long."
Nicotero said they made a dummy head of Hurst's for the scene.
"Ryan really wanted Beta to continue to fight after that," Nicotero said. "Norman had his thoughts and Angela [Kang] and Corey [Reed] had very specific beats because Norman was like, "Yeah, I should just stab him and he should die."
Hurst is OK with how the scene wound up, but does wish he was able to get more time with his friends on the show.
"We're like three chaotic elements," Hurst said, after thinking about it a bit more. "You don't want to put them all together in one scene. It's too much. Your TV will explode. It's just too much cool. The two of them together are cool enough. You put me in there, it's just going to put you right over the top."
Still, when asked if there was anything he didn't get to do during his time on the show that he would have liked to see play out, he returned to having a scene with his pals.
"The only thing that I would have liked to see — just to see how all the elements would have played out — but if Jeff, Norman, and I were all really in one sort of sequence together," Hurst said.
"Anytime that Norman and Jeffrey are on screen together, I love watching that dynamic," he continued. "To throw sort of the darkness of Beta onto that, I would've liked to see... just put those sort of three powerhouses together. We get it for a nanosecond [on the finale] and then Beta gets stabbed in the face."