Walt Lloyd - Development

Development

Many children were seen for the role of Walt. They were narrowed down to a top three, with Malcolm David Kelley winning the part after the producers were impressed with his role in the 2002 film Antwone Fisher.

When Kelley was originally cast, the character of Walt was a 10-year-old boy, but, after two seasons, Kelley no longer looked 10. While the first four seasons move slowly through time and only months have passed on the show, the actual filming stretched over several years. The show's writers dealt with this by sending Michael and Walt away from the island at the end of the second season. In his brief appearance at the end of season three, Kelley is noticeably taller and older with a deeper voice. This fact is acknowledged by Locke in "Confirmed Dead". In the season four episode, "Meet Kevin Johnson", Kelley makes a brief uncredited cameo as Walt in the episode's flashbacks. Make-up and CGI were used to make Kelley look younger and more like a 10-year-old. In the season four finale, "There's No Place Like Home", Walt appears in a flash-forward, but this scene is set about three years after the plane crash, so Kelley's older appearance is not a problem. When asked about the production difficulties associated with Walt and possible appearances of the character in the fourth season, co-creator Damon Lindelof stated: "We've always known Malcolm was going to grow faster than we could shoot the show. And we planned for it. Trust us. Please trust us. You'll see again. But you're gonna have to be patient. Sorry."

"We sort of have ideas. 'Gee, Walt's reading a comic book about polar bears, and a polar bear shows up.' Or, 'Walt is reading a book about birds, and a bird flies into the window.' I know what I mean by it, but I think when the audience starts getting disconnected is when you tell them what to think, which is: Walt is psychic."

Executive producer Damon Lindelof on developing Walt

When the Lost producers were developing the character of Walt, they initially intended for him to display supernatural powers by summoning animals—in the episode "Special", it is suggested that Walt is able both to cause a bird to fly into a window and make a polar bear attack him through telepathy. This is also alluded to in "Live Together, Die Alone", when Ben describes Walt as being "more than could handle". Kelley himself was also under the impression that his character possessed "magic powers", but after he had aged significantly enough for him to look no longer ten years old, the writers' plans were changed, and Walt was written out at the end of season two.

Walt returned to Lost in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham", when Locke visits him in New York. Kelley had stated a willingness to return to the show again, which was realized in "The New Man in Charge".