Daryl's Age - My World - Tumblr

So there seems to be a lot of debate about Daryl’s age. People say he’s 45, others that he’s in his 30s. As of this year, Norman Reedus who plays Daryl, is 45. Most of us know, just because the actor is 45, doesn’t mean his character is.

Once an actor reaches their mid-twenties, they can play a character about 10 years younger than their own age. We see this very often as many actors who play teenagers aren’t in their teens but their twenties. The Walking Dead started back in 2010, about 4 years ago and Norman Reedus was 41. So at the start of the series, Daryl could have been as young as 31! And since about two years have passed, Daryl might be only 33!

At the start of the series, everyone looked younger. Both Daryl and Rick looked to be in their 30s. Before I knew how old Norman Reedus was, I would of guessed Daryl’s age to be about 33 at the start of the series and Rick’s to be about the same or couple years older than Daryl, 35 at most. (By the way, Andrew Lincoln is younger than Norman Reedus and will be 41 in September of this year). So by season 4, I would say Daryl is between 35-37 at the most.

But that’s not the only reason that I think Daryl is only in his 30s. Through out the series, we learned a little bit about Daryl’s past. We learn that his brother, Merle (Played by Michael Rooker, we have the same birthday! He’s exactly 36 years older than me!), was in and out of juvie while Daryl was growing up and at some point left Daryl with their abusive father. So I would guess Merle being at least 40s years old (Michael Rooker is 60). If you remember, Merle was a drug user (412) and a lot of drug users tend to look older, significantly older, depending on the drugs they use, than they actually are, so it’s no surprise they would have a much older actor play Merle. If you also recall (412) Daryl drifted around with Merle from place to place, leaving Merle to make the decisions, and I can’t imagine Daryl doing that until he’s in his 40s. There’s also been no indication that Daryl was a drug user, so I wouldn’t imagine him younger than his 30s, he also looked young and fit at the beginning of the series (Contrast that with Merle who didn’t).

By season 4 we see that both Rick and Daryl look much older then they did at the start of the series. Rick’s hair looks grey, both their hair is longer, and they have more facial hair now. This is no surprise. They’ve been through hell. Been through a lot both emotionally and physically, losing people, fighting off zombies, almost dying. It’s no surprise they look older. Stress and hard lives tend to do that to you. So we should expect this change in appearance in the characters over the years, it’s been about 2 years since the ZA. It’s also no surprise that neither Daryl nor Rick are clean shaven or have as short of hair like they did at the beginning. If you look at the males appearance throughout the series, they have become rugged as the series progressed. Shaving and hair cuts aren’t really important and requires time. Even Carl’s and Carol’s hair grows out, as did Maggie’s and Glenn’s. TWD pays close attention to detail to the character’s physical appearance with their clothes and looks. This is what makes TWD so good and realistic.

I just looked up Rick’s age from the comics, at the beginning he was 29 and currently 31, so Rick in the TV series is probably around the same age. I also always got the impression that Daryl was around Rick’s age. Perhaps Daryl is younger than everyone is thinking.

We all know why Daryl’s age is always talked about now, because of the possible Daryl and Beth relationship turning romantic and the age gap, which is probably less than 20 years, maybe even 15 years. Everyone might also be concerned of the age difference because Emily Kinney has a baby face, so they think the actress is the same age as Beth when in reality the actress will be 29 in August! Also, it has been stated in interviews that Beth is almost 19 in season 4, so she’s not underage and is a legal adult. In today’s society there's still plenty of people who are together with a good age gap between them. So, don’t freak out. It’s only a ZA show.

Edit: What age do you think Daryl is? Why?