Days of Our Lives (DOOL) spoilers reveal that Charlie Dale (Mike Manning) recently met a grim fate on the NBC soap, but did he have to die? Was it always the plan to kill Charlie off?
DOOL Head Writer Ron Carlivati answered these burning questions and more in a new interview with SOD, so let’s talk about Charlie’s death and if it means Mike Manning is done for good at Days.
For starters, Carlivati admitted that he never wavered on his original story plan, which was to have Tripp Dalton (Lucas Adams) implicated in Allie Horton’s (Lindsay Arnold) assault and then reveal it was his half-brother who did it instead.
Carlivati revealed that the plan was always to kill Charlie off at the end of his arc. This just wasn’t a situation where Carlivati thought redemption was truly possible.
“I never thought about changing the story,” Carlivati said. “I always knew that I didn’t want to redeem the rapist; I wanted him to die…” Carlivati did admit that although there’s no excuse for what Charlie did, he tried to give the character a sympathetic backstory where Charlie felt unloved and unwanted.
It was something that affected Charlie throughout his lifetime and drove him to this point.
As for the part about never considering a story change, Carlivati insisted that was true even after he saw a positive audience response to Charlie
. Although some people might feel Mike Manning should’ve been cast as a character without an expiration date, Carlivati suggested having a good actor made fans become more invested in the story. It wasn’t really a matter of wasting the actor to Carlivati.
Manning knew he wouldn’t be sticking around when he signed on for his short-term stint, so everyone was clear on the plan. That said, Carlivati confessed that his “heart kind of sank” when he saw how a lot of people liked Charlie early on.
Since Carlivati was never willing to deviate from his Charlie murder mystery goal, he actually had a different thought about how to keep Manning on Days. “And I was already thinking, ‘Well, maybe he’s got a twin brother,’” Carlivati said.
Of course, Carlivati wasn’t making any promises with that statement, but it’s an interesting possibility to consider for somewhere down the road. If Days of Our Lives ever wants to bring Manning back in the picture, making him Charlie’s twin might be a possibility.
For now, Manning will still be airing in flashback scenes of that fateful night Charlie was shot in his apartment. Days of Our Lives spoilers say fans will see that Charlie got plenty of visitors in the moments leading up to his demise.
As other DOOL news emerges, we’ll keep bringing you updates. Days of Our Lives spoilers say some shockers are still to come in Charlie’s whodunit, so stay tuned. CDL will have tons of other great Days of Our Lives spoilers, updates and news to read up on, so check back often.
