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The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon avoided a haircut because of Felicity
Norman Reedus won’t let The Walking Dead producers cut Daryl Dixon’s hair because he remembers the pushback viewers gave Felicity in the 90s

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Will Daryl Dixon ever cut his gorgeous locks? The Walking Dead breakout character is known for his long scruffy hair, but over the years the showrunners have flirted with the idea of giving the character a new look.
“We talked about the hair at the beginning,” The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon showrunner David Zabel says during a Walking Dead spotlight panel at New York Comic Con 2023. “I wasn’t sure if I had made a fatal mistake because I did say, ‘I was thinking Norm, when they bring you in to clean up at the abbey, maybe they cut your hair and we go back to [The Walking Dead season two] look.”
“We did talk about it,” Daryl Dixon actor Norman Reedus says. “There was a show called Felicity. I don’t know if you remember the show, and this sort of came into the discussions. Supposedly she cut her curly hair off and then the show went downhill. The world freaked out and Keri Russell had to apologize to the world. It just kind of put the fear in me.”
Reedus is referring to a television urban legend surrounding the 1998 drama Felicity. Series star Keri Russell got a new hairstyle in season two, and viewers rejected the change. However, the hairstyle is likely not responsible for the ratings drop. The series had already lost a chunk of their viewers prior to the haircut, largely due to the show moving from Tuesday nights to Sunday nights. However, the idea that the unpopular haircut was the cause of the ratings decline has become engrained into our pop culture consciousness.
In other words, the reason Daryl hasn’t gotten a haircut is based on false information. Still, Reedus doesn’t rule out doing it one day. “I mean, never say never. If it makes sense. Maybe if he gets some place where he’s settled and who fucking knows.”
Just make sure his show doesn’t move to a new night before it happens, or it will be Felicity all over again.
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