'The Walking Dead' season 7 spoilers, plot news: Chandler Riggs on rumors of him leaving the show and what's next for Carl

Growing up in front of the camera as Carl, Chandler Riggs has been a pivotal character in "The Walking Dead." And now, Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) son is picking up his own pivotal arc starting with the events that went down in the last episode of the series. But this potential subplot may be running on borrowed time especially with rumors about the actor pondering on leaving the show.

The issue has already been addressed by Chandler's mom via social media, but in a more recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 17-year-old talked about the speculations of him exiting the juggernaut series to focus on college. And while he did not give any concrete answer as to what his immediate plans are, he said that he is eager to make things work in terms of scheduling even going to the lengths of going through a special arrangement to balance his endeavors.

"You never know how it will go," Chandler candidly said. "I really do hope it works out because that would be really cool. I like to be in The Walking Dead and I like to play video games and just hang out with my friends and try to be as normal as possible so going to college would be another really cool, normal experience in my life. I want for it to work out."

Moving forward, Carl is tipped to become one of the  main game players in the ongoing arc involving Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and how his reign in the show eventually ends. Getting a newfound strength during his horrendous tour of the Saviors' safe house, he gets a better sense of how this chess game with the Lucille-wielding villain actually works.

"Both Carl and Daryl (Norman Reedus) have that information and a few people in the group share that common goal [of killing Negan]: Rosita (Christian Serratos) wants to take Negan down and Michonne is starting to want the same as well — as we saw with her scene in the car," Chandler pointed out the possibilities of finally trying to fight back after Negan broke the Alexandrians down with killing Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun). "People are starting to rally on the side of wanting to fight but you have to get everyone on that side otherwise people are not going to be willing to sacrifice their own lives trying to kill this guy."

"The Walking Dead" airs its midseason finale this Sunday, Dec. 11, 9 p.m. ET on AMC.