The Walking Dead breaks age-old trend with The Ones Who Live villain

The Walking Dead was known for dragging its villains out, but The Ones Who Live has already ditched this trend.

In The Walking Dead, it’s not just the walkers you need to worry about. In fact, throughout the course of the post-apocalyptic series (and its companion shows), humans are more often than not the biggest threat.

Most fans can agree that The Walking Dead had some of the best small screen foes around. From The Governor, to Negan, to the Whisperers, there were a lot of psychos to avoid. But one thing the show never quite achieved was knowing when to end a villain’s reign, leaving fans often feeling tired and bored of a particular character.

But the newest spinoff, The Ones Who Live, has already proven itself by ditching the over-played villain rule. In fact, one antagonist ended up leaving fans wanting more.

The Walking Dead fans praise Okafor’s character in The Ones Who Live

On The Walking Dead subreddit, fans made a point of how much they loved Okafor’s character, and even suggested that killing him off was a huge mistake.

“One of largest improvements The Ones Who Live made over the last seasons of OG The Walking Dead was the quality of side characters. I was begging for characters like Magna and Kelly to get off the damn screen. Now? Now I wish so fervently that we got MORE of this guy,” one user wrote, referring to Okafor.

Others quickly agreed, saying he was the best new character in years. As the Lieutenant Colonel of the Civic Republic Military, his relationship with Rick and his on-screen chemistry with Andrew Lincoln (despite only appearing in the first episode so far), clearly made an impact. However, by the end of Episode 1, he was killed in a helicopter attack.

“He is a great character and actor,” one response said. “The fight scene between him and Rick was really amazing.”

“YES! this exactly,” one comment said. “When I first saw his death, I thought it was a premonition or something, some final destination shit because I refused to believe they’d kill off such an amazing character. Even now I can’t get over the fact he’s dead, truly wish he stayed, but his death was one of the best on the show.”

Although Okafor’s time on the spinoff series was brief, many noted just how influential he was for Rick during those several years in the story. As one user wrote: “Top 5 most important character in TWD universe.”

However, another noted that he could be coming back. “I think he’ll be in flashbacks,” they wrote. “He was one of the biggest influences on Rick for 7 years.”