(Screenshot via YouTube.)

Daryl Dixon is a fan favorite on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” but the character almost had the honor of being the show’s first gay character.

Norman Reedus, who portrays Daryl, spoke with the Mirror Online and said series’ co-creator Frank Darabont toyed with the idea of Daryl having a same-sex relationship.

“There was a time on the show where Frank [Darabont] was going to have me be gay, but he won’t admit it,” Reedus says. “If he admits it’s like he’ll kill you. He referred to it as ‘prison gay,’ and I didn’t know what that meant.”

“We were there and he said ‘what do you think if we made Daryl gay?’ and I was like let’s do it, let’s do it!” He was like ‘I knew I picked the right guy for this job,'” Reedus continued.

While Daryl’s sexuality has never been addressed, the show appears to have shifted to a setting up a possible romance between Daryl and Melissa McBride’s character Carol.

“It never happened obviously, but I’m not against it and if it happened I would be down for it and I’d try to kick ass at it but I don’t know if that’s where we’re going with it. It hasn’t come up other than fans, and Tom [Payne] joking about it.”

Payne plays Jesus, a character who is gay in the comic book series who will also come out on the show.

Payne told ComicBook.com, “I can’t tell you how that might be addressed in the show or how it would come across, but yeah. Essentially he is the same as he is the comic books in that regard.”

“The Walking Dead” airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.