Why Norman Reedus Ran Around The Walking Dead Set Naked

the walking dead daryl

Strange occurrences seem to happen pretty frequently on the set of The Walking Dead, ranging from epic pranks between cast members to the creation of zombie heads modeled after Johnny Depp. Still, it isn't every day that some strangeness comes from unintended nudity on The Walking Dead set. Actor Norman Reedus actually found a reason to run around the set naked during filming for the Season 6 premiere. The Walking Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero had this to say about Reedus' naked race through the zombie apocalypse:

Norman's alarm didn't go off and we put a [stunt] double in his wardrobe. And Norman refused and got to set, stripped his clothes off on his way to set, and got in the shot before we were ready.

Well, that's one way to show dedication to a job. Most people have had the experience of oversleeping and ending up late for work; few of us probably have stripped naked and rushed in front of a camera to make up for our tardiness. Kudos, Norman Reedus.

Luckily for Norman Reedus, it seems that his naked incident was not caught on camera. A deleted scene with some Daryl nakedness may have helped sell some DVDs and Blu-rays to some of his most dedicated fans, but it looks like he may want to be immortalized on The Walking Dead for his acting skills on set rather than what he has going on underneath all those grimy layers of Daryl wardrobe.

Norman Reedus has shared that the Walking Dead cast and crew are usually in great moods in the beginning of seasons, so running nude through set of the Season 6 premiere may have been the perfectly hilarious way to kick off another year of the zombie apocalypse. Filming for the Season 7 premiere sounds like it was so grim that even the silliest streaking story might not have been enough to bring the laughs, and Greg Nicotero has reported that fans are in for a seventh season that gets awfully dark. Hopefully Nicotero's fun story about the streaking - which he shared in a Blu-ray commentary for Season 6 (via EW) - will tide us over during the upcoming doom and gloom of Negan's reign.eason 7.

The odds are pretty good that Norman Reedus as Daryl will be around for at least a little while in Season 7. Daryl was one of the good guys who was captured by the Saviors and a candidate for the big death, but Reedus seems to be hanging around set a long time for somebody whose character was killed off. A teaser hints that Daryl didn't escape the Saviors unscathed, and he may have been set up for a comic storyline that could take his character in a whole new direction.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. ET. Check out our fall TV premiere schedule to see what else you'll be able to watch soon, and don't forget to take a look at our breakdown of what we know so far about The Walking Dead S

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).