Before killing her off, The Walking Dead had big plans for Andrea (Laurie Holden). In the AMC series, Andrea was an original member of Rick’s group in Atlanta and a casualty of the show’s Governor arc. In season 1, Andrea had strong relationships with Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) as well as her sister, Amy (Emma Bell). She also played big roles in the show’s earliest stories and had a part in the group’s decision-making.
Andrea outlived key characters like Dale, Shane (Jon Bernthal), and Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), but unfortunately didn’t make it past season 3. After being the first character to cross paths with Michonne (Danai Gurria) and meeting the Governor (David Morrissey), Andrea became integral to the show’s season 3 story. While most of the characters were spending their time at the prison, Andrea was at Woodbury, engaged in a romance with the Governor. But after seeing his true colors and learning of his conflict with Rick’s people, Andrea began to doubt her loyalty to him. It's when she saw his torture room that she made a fateful decision to leave Woodbury and warn Rick (Andrew Lincoln) of the Governor's intentions.
However, her plan was foiled. As punishment for her betrayal, she was chained up in a room with an infected Milton (Dallas Roberts) and left to die by the Governor. After being bitten, she committed suicide to stop herself from turning. Her death hit Michonne and all the others hard, but it helped motivate Rick to become the leader he needed to be for the sake of his group. It also made the Governor a much more sinister opponent for the rest of season 3 and season 4. Though what happened to Andrea did serve a purpose, it was still quite unexpected, especially since this was one of the first times the show had killed off someone who had yet to die in the comics. Her death in season 3 was also contrary to what Walking Dead had intended for the character at the beginning.
When the Governor was unable to take the prison like he wanted to in season 3, he insisted on trying again, but the people of Woodbury were opposed to the idea. The mentally unstable villain responded by lashing out against his own followers. The Governor and a handful of his men succeeded in laying waste to the Woodbury residents. If Andrea had lived, the settlement wouldn’t have suffered such a tragic fate. According to Laurie Holden, she would have ridden up on a horse and saved them. How exactly this would have played out it isn’t clear, but it could be that Andrea would have shot the Governor or forced them into fleeing somehow. Since their relationship had already deteriorated, it’s unlikely that Andrea could have saved Woodbury with anything but force.
One of the things that Laurie Holden has said in interviews about Andrea is that she would have grown into a leadership role at Woodbury. Woodbury was wiped out in season 3, but if Andrea had saved it, they would have needed a new character to lead them forward. As their savior, Andrea would have been the perfect candidate. Seeing how Walking Dead would have approached this storyline would have been interesting, since the rest of the cast was still based in the prison at this time. It would seem that if The Walking Dead had followed this plan, Andrea would have remained at Woodbury for the time being, but she surely would have left by the time The Walking Dead moved out of Georgia in season 4.
Laurie Holden has briefly stated that had Andrea lived through season 3, she would have ended up with Rick. Since Rick had just lost Lori, it’s hard to imagine him becoming romantically involved with any character in the immediate future, as it took him some time to deal with the pain. Rick didn’t gain another love interest until season 5 when he met Jessie (Alexandra Breckinridge) in Alexandria, so it’s possible that it would have taken at least that long before anything romantic developed between Rick and Andrea. It should also be noted that though the two were together in the comics, there was nothing in the show that even hinted at a possible future romance. With this in mind, it would have taken a lot of shared screen-time between the two characters before The Walking Dead could have moved in this direction.
If The Walking Dead paired Rick with Andrea, his romance with Michonne (which started in season 6) may have never happened. Instead, the character relationships might have more closely mirrored the ones in the comics. While Rick and Andrea got together on paper, Michonne had relationships with both Ezekiel and Morgan. Neither of these ultimately happened in the TV show (though the series did deliver a Michonne-Ezekiel kiss scene).
Laurie Holden has revealed that she had an eight-year deal on The Walking Dead, which is a testament to how invested they were in her character. Based on how much (and how long) the comics utilized her, it makes sense that the writers and producers wanted to keep her around for so long. In fact, Andrea didn’t even die until shortly after the Whisperer War. That means that if The Walking Dead had tried to follow the comics, Andrea could still be alive now.
There’s no telling how far she would have gotten, or if she still would have been killed off early. Even so, if Andrea had survived, she could have had roles in several different stories, just like her comic book counterpart. In the comics, Andrea was the first to meet Abraham’s group. She later became a lookout for Alexandria and a mother figure to Carl. She also led the community while Rick was away fighting the Saviors. Any of these plotlines could have been adapted if she had survived the Woodbury incident in season 3.
If The Walking Dead hadn’t decided to change course with Andrea, she could have been an even bigger character on the show, in the same vein as Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Daryl (Norman Reedus). She could have been involved in the season 4 continuation of the battle with the Governor, the fight with the cannibals at Terminus, the group being split apart for half a season, the introduction of Alexandria, and the All-Out War with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors.
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August 26, 2020 at 05:13AM
