The Walking Dead may not rear its ugly, zombified head until October but AMC has already revealed new cast members and their roles in the undead drama.
The news comes courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, which also has some exclusive new photos of the new cast members.
Spoilers follow.
The New Doctor
Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie) will find herself in Alexandria as the new doctor now that Pete's dead. She'll be playing Dr. Denise Cloyd, a character readers of the comics will be familiar with.
This would seem to confirm that Pete is, in fact, among the corpses Rick's little group has added to Alexandria's pile. There was some speculation that Rick didn't shoot the alcoholic, wife-abusing doctor at the end of last season.
A new doctor seems a bit...convenient given the circumstances, but it's at least mirroring the source material.
The New Sheriff
Speaking of piles of bodies stacking up thanks to bad behavior and even worse decision-making, Ethan Embry (Brotherhood) is also joining the cast in Season 6 as Carter. According to Entertainment Weekly he's been a resident of Alexandria since before Rick and co. showed up, but he just was super busy or something and we didn't see him before. Now he's back and he isn't happy with the newcomers and the fact that ever since they arrived things have gone to hell. The season 6 trailer (below) shows him and Morgan opposing Rick, while other greater dangers encroach.
It's not all Rick's fault, of course---the Alexandrians made some really bad calls themselves---but he mismanaged his own role and his group's role in making the settlement secure. He had an opportunity to win their trust and actually improve the chances of everyone's survival. Instead, he plotted and conspired, was reckless and rash, and wasted his chance to do good. I don't even know Carter yet, but I already like him. Here's hoping he and Morgan slap some sense into the good Sheriff's head before it's too late.
The New Black Guy
Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton) is also joining the cast as a supply-runner for Alexandria. Excuse the pithy sub-headline above, but this comes on the heels of most of the other black male characters in the show getting killed off. The Walking Dead has a perplexing (and avoidable) habit of killing off one black male character and then adding a new one every season or so. T-Dog, Oscar, Tyreese, Bob, and finally Noah, have all died and been replaced. Morgan has survived but we've barely seen him over the course of five seasons. The criticism I hear whenever I point this out is that white people also die in the show. And it's true! But we have yet to see a single black character survive as a core, primary protagonist the way Rick, Daryl and Carl have. And there have been fewer black characters in general, making the death-to-survival ration even more skewed.
And look, don't even bother pointing out what a horrible person I am for saying this. Every time I point this out Very Angry Commenters say I'm concern-trolling. I'm not. I just think it's weird, and I worry---I really do worry---for Hawkin's character, Heath. I don't think he'll make it. AMC and the showrunners aren't being racist, they're just having a hard time writing a good black character other than Michonne and Morgan. Tyreese should have been a much, much more interesting and likable guy. He wasn't.
Will any of them make it?
This also seems unlikely. Side-characters very rarely make it as part of the core group, so even though some or all of these new additions could survive the season I wouldn't bet money on it. It seems extremely likely that Alexandria itself falls within the first half (or by the midseason finale) of Season 6, and that sort of defeat won't bode well for survivors. (How many bit parts from the prison survived that mess? Zero?)
The conflict from Season 5 seems to extend pretty directly into Season 6. Morgan seems to play a very big role this time around, acting as a new moral compass, in direct opposition to an increasingly imbalanced Rick. Count me on Team Morgan.
The Walking Dead Season 6 premieres October 11th. I'll be reviewing, as per usual. Here's the trailer:
Looks exciting to me! Here's hoping it actually will be, and we won't have ten extraneous episodes of mind-numbingly contrived character drama!
