With the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead around the corner and the return of The Walking Dead a few months away, fans are understandably chomping at the bit for new information like the flesh-eating walkers on their favorite shows. Now, we have our first look at three of these new characters—Denise, Heath, and Carter—thanks to Entertainment Weekly.
As we learned at San Diego Comic-Con, Alexandria is gaining a few more residents—namely Ethan Embry and Merritt Wever—but little else was disclosed at that time. Now we know a fair sight more about exactly who they will be playing. Comic book fans will be delighted to learn that Wever will be playing none other than Dr. Denise Cloyd, a medic within the Alexandria Safe Zone community whose surgical skills come in handy time and time again—especially after a major character sustains a life-threatening injury. Whether or not we’ll see that play out on the show, however, is another matter entirely.
Another comic book fan-favorite, Heath, will be making his The Walking Dead TV debut this fall, brought to life by actor Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton). A supply runner for Alexandria who becomes romantically linked to Denise, Heath becomes a major part of the overarching storyline and is part of what seems to be an influx of familiar faces heading our way. As anyone who is caught up with the comics will tell you, Heath has definitely seen some shit.
Showrunner Scott M. Gimple was ecstatic to have Hawkins aboard as Heath. “He’s terrific and I’m so excited to see him bring Heath to life,” he told EW. “It’s been fun and he dove in with both feet. He’s tough and skeptical when the cameras are rolling, and then when they’re off he’s just like a goofy fan. He’s really, really excited to be there.”
Last—but not least—we have Ethan Embry’s character, a mysterious man named Carter. That isn’t to say that the character of Carter is mysterious; rather he is a brand new character, an amalgam of several comic book characters, according to Gimple. “Ethan plays a combo of a few characters that we actually haven’t hit yet or weren’t able to hit in other characters,” Gimple said. “He is an Alexandrian, and has been there the whole time, just quite busy.” Time to rewatch season 5 and see if we can spot him in the background, perhaps?
As we’ve seen in the season 6 trailer, though, Carter seems like he’ll be spending a fair amount of his energy trying to rally the citizens of Alexandria against Rick and the tide of violence he brought with him. Whether or not Coral will be staying in the house or eating more roof pudding remains unconfirmed at this time.
And in case you missed The Walking Dead‘s big news from Comic-Con, watch our recap right here.
The Walking Dead returns on October 11, 2015.
What are you hoping to see happen this season? Any fan-favorite comic arcs you’re looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below.
Images:Â Entertainment Weekly, Image Comics’Â The Walking Dead
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of 100 Things Avengers Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. You can follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).
