The stars behind The Walking Dead‘s Nicholas and Enid talk about what could have happened with their characters and what’s next for them.
Last season on The Walking Dead, Nicholas proved to be one of the most hated new characters. On the flip side, the character of Enid has proven to be intriguing, leading many to speculate on her fate.
Michael Traynor and Katelyn Nacon are the actor and actress who play Nicholas and Enid, respectively. Both Traynor and Nacon were in Atlanta during Halloween weekend for the annual Walker Stalker convention.
ComicBook.com interviewed both stars, getting their takes on what could’ve been and what could still be.
Dumpster Fire
Image Credit: AMC
For Traynor, it was just a relief not to be carrying a secret anymore. Last year’s Walker Stalker convention took place just after the infamous “dumpster” episode. At the end of the episode, it appears that both Nicholas and Glenn have been killed by walkers. As it later turned out, only Nicholas had been killed; Glenn had hidden under a dumpster. At the time, though, no one knew whether Glenn lived or died. Fans took their frustrations out on Traynor.
“It was the big mystery of what was Glenn’s fate gonna be?” Traynor said. “I had two lines of people. One were crying and in despair and the other had pitchforks and torches coming to kill me.”
An Evolution
Even though his time on the show was short-lived, Traynor is thankful for the experience. “The Walking Dead, it was really a gift,” he said. “When I got hired, I just hopped on a plane not knowing anything about what the role was gonna be and as the scripts kept coming and as the characters evolved, it was kind of a gift from the writers.”
If Nicholas had survived, Traynor thinks his survivor skills would have improved. “I think he has proven that he was pretty wily when it came to fighting other humans,” he said. “It was just, he was terrified of those shambling mounds of death everywhere.”
Next up for Traynor is a movie called The Thinning, where he stars as Mason King. “The Thinning is like a dystopian future,” Traynor said. “The idea of overpopulation is being dealt with by standardized testing.”
“Mason King is a part of the enforcement organization for these tests and kind of a dark-eyed, slicked back force of nature that goes around killing teenagers,” Traynor said.
Trapped in the Closet
Image Credit: AMC
Meanwhile, the last time we saw Enid, she was locked in a closet. Nacon says not to worry. “I think she knows how to get herself out of a closet,” she said. “She’s still alive.”
Many fans have speculated that Enid is meant to take the place of Sophia from the comic books. On the TV series, Sophia was killed in Season 2. In The Walking Dead comic book, though, she survives. It’s her mother, Carol (a very different character from the TV version) who dies when she commits suicide. “Glenn and Maggie adopt her and it was starting to look like that,” Nacon said. “They were starting to become almost parental figures in her life. So, maybe, we might see it. I hear Sophia is a total bad-ass in the comics.”
Carl + Enid?
Another future that Enid that fans are curious about is a potential budding romance with Carl. “I don’t know if it’s the best thing for both of them but at the same time you always want to see someone be happy,” Nacon said. “I really care about Enid. If it brings her happiness instead of pain, then yes.”
