A former Walking Dead series regular has confirmed that it was his decision to leave the show.
Dale Horvath met his end back in 2012, being disembowelled by a walker near the end of the second season.
Behind the scenes, actor Jeffrey DeMunn was deeply unhappy over the way that Frank Darabont had suddenly departed as showrunner.
Darabont would go on to sue AMC, seeking $280 million in damages.
It is not the first time DeMunn has spoken about this, but he told
Cleveland.com that he indeed did quit in response to the drama, calling his own exit "an immense relief".
"Dale's death was my decision," he said. "I was furious about how Frank was pushed out of the show.
"I spent a week not being able to take a full breath. And then I realised, 'Oh, I can quit'. So I called them and said, 'It's a zombie show. Kill me. I don't want to do this anymore'.
"It was an immense relief for me."
DeMunn added that he loved being part of the show at the start, despite the weather conditions.
"The writing in the beginning was just amazing, as was that original cast," he explained. "You can't talk about The Walking Dead without talking about the extreme heat. I was always grateful for Dale's hat, by the way. It was serious heat and we were working all day. The heat had a way of uniting us all, cast and crew. You kept an eye on your friends under those conditions."
Dale in the TV series died earlier than his comics counterpart, so in a death 'remix', Bob Stookey took over comics Dale's death – bitten in the shoulder, having his leg amputated and eaten by the Terminus group ("tainted meat!"), and succumbing to the infection.