Making the jump from supporting characters to series regulars, four actors have been added to the large cast that makes up the popular AMC zombie drama. Actors added as series regulars include Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Tom Payne, Austin Amelio and Xander Berkeley. Seen for the first time in the season finale of season six, Morgan plays the charismatic villain known as Negan; a character likely to torment the core group of Walking Dead survivors for many episodes.
Payne is the character known as Jesus, a friend to Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and company. Amelio is Dwight, a character that’s currently in a feud with Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus). Berkeley plays Gregory, the leader of the Hilltop Colony first seen in season six as a potential trading partner to Alexandria.
While this brings the full cast of series regulars to twenty in total, it’s unlikely that number will stand after the first episode of season seven. As teased in the season finale cliffhanger of season six, Negan is expected to kill a minimum of one of the main characters with the weapon he calls Lucille, a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
Besides Lincoln and Reedus, other series regulars include Alanna Masterson (Tara), Austin Nichols (Spencer), Chandler Riggs (Carl), Christian Serratos (Rosita), Danai Gurira (Michonne), Josh McDermitt (Eugene), Lauren Cohan (Maggie), Lennie James (Morgan), Melissa McBride (Carol), Michael Cudlitz (Abraham), Ross Marquand (Aaron), Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel), Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha) and Steven Yeun (Glenn).
The Walking Dead is expected to return to AMC during October 2016. It’s possible that AMC will release a teaser trailer for the upcoming season during Comic-Con 2016 later this month. It’s likely that AMC will also announce casting for Ezekiel, the self-proclaimed king of another survivalist community in the Walking Dead universe called the Kingdom.
