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Norman Reedus paid tribute after his canine co-star from The Walking Dead passed away. In the zombie drama series, the role of Dog, Daryl Dixon’s companion, was portrayed by Seven. The news of Seven’s passing was announced on the official social media channels for The Walking Dead. AMC posted to Twitter, “Rest in peace, Seven. TWD’s best boy.” Reedus also took to his Instagram to share the news and wrote, “Gonna miss u seven. Best tv buddy ever.”
The character Dog was first introduced in The Walking Dead as a companion of Lynn Collins’ character Leah. After Leah vanishes in Season 10, Reedus’ character Daryl finds and adopts the canine, keeping the simple name “Dog.” Dog survived to the end of the show and was last seen in the series finale of The Walking Dead that aired in 2022. Daryl last saw Dog when he departed to look for Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Judith (Cailey Fleming) promised to look after the canine for him.
“It’s so good,” Reedus previously said in a 2018 interview with ComicBook about working with Seven, a Belgian Malinois. “I love it. I think he’s the smartest cast member we got. We just did a scene the other day that ended up being the opposite of what it was supposed to be because the dog just wanted to do something else, and it came out so much better. He’ll probably be running the show. It’s great! I love it. He loves me, too.”
Angela Kang, the then-showrunner, explained in 2018 to Entertainment Weekly the decision to incorporate Dog into the series, “We were talking about how we can show the state that Daryl’s in, and I thought it would be great that he’s been off for a while after Rick’s presumed death. Daryl just went off. And Daryl is somebody who hunts and goes about and does things, and it seemed like a dog is a good companion. It shows that there’s still a desire for him to have a connection somehow. And so the dog is his faithful companion.”
Kang also noted Reedus’s involvement in selecting the dog, adding, “Norman wanted to help pick the type of dog, so he kept texting me pictures of adorable dogs for weeks. The main dog, his name is Seven, and he is just so adorable and such a great dog. It’s a lot of fun seeing Norman work with the pup finally.”
