As you no doubt have noticed, Andrew Lincoln’s The Walking Dead character Sheriff Rick Grimes has been getting beardier and beardier as the show progresses. As of last week’s Season 5 premiere, Rick was at full baby-scratchin’-mountain-man status.

But for the past month or so, Lincoln has been walking around in public with a much cleaner look more akin to Season 1 Rick Grimes. This shouldn’t be that strange. Plenty of people shave off their beards when their shows are on hiatus. (Have you seen the Game of Thrones crew without their beards? Wow.) The problem is, The Walking Dead isn’t on hiatus. They’re filming right now. So there are two possibilities. The first is that the survivors find some kind of civilized rest stop and Rick shaves his beard off. (The better to snuggle baby Judith, my dear.) That could happen. The show has had shower/grooming montages before. But whatever this grooming segment may hold, it looks like Norman Reedus’s Daryl will continue to embrace the greasier side of life.

The second, more troubling possibility is that Rick gets killed off allowing Andrew Lincoln to do whatever he likes with his face. (No spoilers!) It’s this possibility that has caused fans to worry. At the Walker Stalker Convention this weekend, one fan asked Lincoln about his beard and the meaning behind its absence. According to ComicBook.com, this was the response from Lincoln, Reedus, and The Walking Dead producer, and director Greg Nicotero:

Reedus: You know what’s crazy is I have his beard in a ziploc bag in my refrigerator. True story.

Lincoln: This is for real. He said to me, and he just went, when we had to do this…are we allowed to talk about it?

Nicotero: You can’t talk about that.

Lincoln: Whatever happens…when I died from the show this season. He says, “I want Andy’s DNA.”

The fact that Lincoln is told he can’t talk about what really happens and then jokes that his character dies probably means that Grimes is safe to slay another day. We’re just going to ignore what Reedus said about beards and freezers. Some speculate that the shaving of Rick Grimes has less to do with plot and more to do with Lincoln wanting to get some film work. It is odd that Lincoln, the lead actor of the most-watched TV show on cable, hasn’t had a film role since 2010. Meanwhile Game of Thrones actors are booking movie gigs left and right . The Hollywood Reporter put forth a theory that The Walking Dead cast hasn’t had much luck because of how grimy and unkempt they appear on their show. What do you think? Does clean-shaven Andrew Lincoln look more like a movie star? Will casting directors think so? Here’s hoping their response looks like this.