Melissa McBride had lots of creative input into “Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol”

The star also helped craft the story on the screen.

Fans of The Walking Dead are counting the days until the long-awaited reunion of Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) on season 2 of Daryl Dixon… even if they are not exactly sure how many days it will be until the dynamic and deadly duo actually reunite on the show. But just as exciting to the #TWDFamily should be the level of participation on the part of star Melissa McBride beyond just appearing on the series.

McBride is not just an actor on the spinoff (which premieres Sept. 29 on AMC), she is an executive producer as well. And, as we outlined in our recent Daryl Dixon cover story, McBride was instrumental in coming up with one of the big thematic arcs for season 2 (which is being billed as The Book of Carol). That arc involves taking the character all the way back to seeing her daughter Sophia (Madison Lintz) walk out of Hershel’s (Scott Wilson) barn a zombie in season 2 of the original series.

Related: Inside Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride's long, winding Walking Dead road: 'It's a great full circle'

"The person who lit the fuse on that [idea] was Melissa," says Walking Dead chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, who credits a brainstorm during a joint car ride on Long Island. "I just listened to Melissa talk about her hopes and dreams for storytelling with this character. And in her mind, there was a lot of unfinished business she wanted to attend to."

That conversation between Gimple and McBride mirrored another one she had with Daryl Dixon showrunner David Zabel. “I said, ‘Melissa, what are the things in the show that you feel we should explore?’” recalls Zabel, while in Madrid for filming on season 3. “And one of the things was she felt was there was an accumulation of trauma and unresolved grief that the character had been through. She felt that on the [original] show, sometimes there hadn't been enough time or room or space true to kind of process and get through.”

Adds costar Norman Reedus, “We had such a big cast in Georgia. You don't get to service every storyline because there's just so much of us. This was a good opportunity for her to do the things she didn't get to do back there just because of the size of the cast.”

Related: Norman Reedus sings on season 2 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (exclusive)

It’s a sentiment echoed by McBride herself. “There was always more story to tell for Carol on the original show,” she says. “And we're hitting on quite a bit of that in the spinoff.”

No one has more ownership over the character of Carol than McBride, which is why her contributions were so important to charting the upcoming story. “I had a fair amount of input,” McBride says. “I was talking to David about getting Carol over there, and what the impetus is for her to go on this journey to find him. There's more to it other than being concerned about him, or having these gut feelings about him and his well-being.”

Which brought her right back to Sophia walking out of that barn: "Carol has had a lot of time to deal with grief, particularly with Sophia. What I was most interested in tackling was the unresolved feelings of survivor's guilt."

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And that traumatic event first seen on screen 13 years ago naturally connects Carol right back to Daryl. “Carol has had this traumatic trajectory that started with Sophia,” the showrunner notes. “And she's had this beautiful relationship with Daryl that started with Sophia to the extent that his looking for her was such a bonding thing for them.”

And the bonding will continue at some point after The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol premieres Sept. 29 on AMC.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.