The Yellowstone universe’s first modern-day follow-up, Marshals, is almost here to finally answer some big fan questions, such as what happened to Monica, and how Beth and Rip’s absences will be explained as they gear up for their own spinoff. Shockingly enough, one of my other overarching concerns about Marshals’ arrival on the 2026 TV schedule has actually already been answered thanks to the latest bit of casting news.

Ahead of its March 1 series premiere, Marshals has added the former star of another highly successful genre series with a high spinoff rate: The Walking Dead vet Michael Cudlitz. He’s set for a recurring guest star role, according to EW, but it doesn’t sound like he and Kayce Dutton are destined to be BFFs in the foreseeable future.

Who Is Michael Cudlitz Playing In Marshals?

Seen most recently opposite the Man of Steel as Superman and Lois' Lex Luthor, Michael Cudlitz won't be playing a character who's quite so univerally recognizable in Marshals, but I won't go on the record saying this dude will be a lot nicer. He's set to portray Randall Clegg, the gruff patriarch of another legacied ranching family in Montana. Their time on the land doesn't stretch back quite as long as the Duttons', but I don't foresee Randall willingly copping to being the second most noteworthy clan in the area.

While it's not specified just how many installments Cudlitz will appear in, his arrival will take place in the episode airing on CBS on March 15. So fans will get a couple of episodes to get to retouch base with Kayce and meet his squad of fellow Marshals.

How Cudlitz's Randall Clegg Soothes One Of My Yellowstone-Related Concerns

To date, Marshals’ storyline has mostly been described as centering on Kayce following up on all the family’s ranch-related drama by joining the U.S. Marshal Service and leaning into that brand of frontier justice — pun fully intended — by guiding a team of brave badasses through the physical and psychological turmoil that comes with the badge. Combine that logline with CBS’ long history with job-centric procedural dramas, and like me, you might expect for Marshals to also fall into a case-of-the-week pattern.

But Cudlitz joining the series means that Marshals will indeed keep some of Yellowstone's serialized storytelling intact, which is definitely what I was hoping for from this show. Nothing against procedurals, but it'd be too much of a jolt to go from one extreme to the other without some crossover.

As well, Randall Clegg seems like he'll fill the role of a central villain, even if only in a recurring capacity, which is an element that always made Yellowstone better in my eyes. The Duttons are only so interesting without a charismatic and captivating antagonist standing in the way, and I love the lack of intimidation that comes across when Cudlitz shows up in the trailer below.

It's not much, granted, but it's enough to get me pumped about what could go down between those two a bit later in the season. Maybe they can both fight that bear from the first trailer.

Check out the rest of the announced cast below.

• Logan Marshall-Green
• Arielle Kebbel
• Ash Santos
• Tatanka Means
• Gil Birmingham (From Yellowstone)
• Mo Brings Plenty (From Yellowstone)
• Brecken Merrill (From Yellowstone)
• Guest star: Country music star Riley Green

Michael Cudlitz played the flame-haired fan favorite Abraham for several seasons of the flagship Walking Dead drama's core run, and he played heavily into the most controversial episode of that horror-drama's run. I cannot foresee the same kind of plotline playing out on Marshals, but then again, I wouldn't have guessed how Yellowstone Season 5 played out, so I'm willing to keep an open mind.

Marshals kicks off on CBS starting on Sunday, March 1, with episodes available to stream the next day via Paramount+ subscription.

In December 2024, Superman & Lois concluded after four seasons, and that in turn marked the end of the Arrowverse and nearly two decades of The CW delivering DC TV shows. While the series finale, “It Went By So Fast,” was able to give its characters perfect endings, the original plan had been for the Tyler Hoechlin and Bits Tulloch-led series series to run much longer. In fact, Michael Cudltiz, who played Superman & Lois’ Lex Luthor, recently revealed that Brainiac was supposed to appear in future seasons, which is making me sad again that the show ended before its time.

Cudlitz shared this information while speaking with ScreenRant at Fan Expo Philadelphia. When asked if he knew of any story elements that had been discussed for Superman & Lois, but were never able to be explored, the actor answered:

Although Lex Luthor is considered to be Superman’s arch-nemesis, Brainiac definitely comes in a close second. Whether he’s being depicted as a superintelligent from the planet Colu or a rogue AI from Krypton, this villain has been a thorn in Superman’s side in the comics and other media for over 65 years. Some of Brainiac’s most notable appearances outside of the printed page include in the DC Animated Universe (starting with Superman: The Animated Series), My Adventures with Superman (one of my favorite versions), and the short-lived Krypton, which did an especially good job depicting him in live-action.

Considering how well Superman & Lois adapted characters like Bizarro Superman and Doomsday, I definitely would have welcomed seeing the show put its stamp on Brainiac. I’d also like to think that if Michael Cudlitz was aware about the Superman & Lois team wanting to use this green-skinned menace, maybe we would have seen him and Luthor work together. After all, these two have a history of partnering together in DC stories, and it often doesn’t end well for them. Alas, we’ll just have use our imaginations to envision how things would’ve gone down between him and Cudlitz’s Luthor.

Superman & Lois was cancelled after four seasons for a variety of reasons, including The CW’s programming lineup significantly changing after the channel was acquired by Nexstar, as well as reportedly to avoid competition with James Gunn’s Superman movie. But unlike fellow DC shows Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow and Gotham Knights, Superman & Lois was at least given time to craft a proper ending rather than leave fans with unresolved plot threads.

So things didn’t end up working out with Brainiac on Superman & Lois, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the DC Universe finds a way to include him. What you can do is stream many of the character’s previous film and TV appearances, as well as the entirety of Superman & Lois, with a Max subscription.

Warning: SPOILERS for the Superman & Lois episode “To Live and Die Again” are ahead!

The last DC TV show on The CW is about to come to an end. Following The Flash wrapping up the main Arrowverse continuity in 2023, Superman & Lois’ fourth and final season has been airing on the 2024 TV schedule, with Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor serving as main antagonist following his two guest appearances at the end of Season 3.

Luthor’s done a lot of dirty deeds this season, from having Doomsday kill Superman (albeit temporarily) and then ordering the creature to murder Sam Lane, to alienating his own daughter and tarnishing Lois Lane’s reputation in an interview with Gordon Godfrey. But the show’s penultimate episode, “To Live and Die Again”, ended on an especially devastating note because of Luthor, and as a result, I’m pleased to say that this is now my favorite live-action version of the character.

Lex Luthor Unleashed A Nearly Invincible Doomsday Onto Smallville

“To Live and Die Again” started with Lex Luthor hitting the Kent family with more problems, namely a defamation lawsuit and the bill for the custom windows from his penthouse that were shattered when Superman flew them to intercept John Henry Irons’ suit last week. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Amanda McCoy not so subtly tipped Lois Lane off that Cheryl Kimble, the woman who seduced her dad and arranged his kidnapping, was dead, meaning there were no other witnesses who could testify against Luthor.

While Clark was training Jonathan and Jordan to hone their powers now that it’s been confirmed that the Man of Steel’s are slowly diminishing, Lois visited Bruno Mannheim in prison to get his help, as he and his late wife Peia were the ones who framed Lex Luthor for the murder of Boss Moxie, resulting in him being incarcerated for 17 years. Although they were unsuccessful thinking of another witness since everyone else who could speak out against Luthor was also dead, Lois did learn from Bruno that Cheryl had once been in love with with Michael Cudlitz’s character, but all he did was use her until she was no longer needed, then tossed her aside.

Lois recognized that Luthor and Amanda’s dynamic was quite similar, so she visited her to warn her to get away from Luthor before it was too late. Luthor had already started distancing himself from Amanda after Superman paid him a visit to get in his head by making him think Amanda was the one really calling the shots. In response, Luthor made Amanda the largest LuthorCorp shareholder after him, which he claimed was a reward for all the good work she’d done. However, he barely responded when she kissed him, and after hearing what Lois had to say, the seed of doubt was planted in her head.

Meanwhile, as he was waiting for his equally-cold minion Milton to finish upgrading John Henry Irons’ armor into his own “killer suit”, Lex Luthor deduced that Doomsday, who ran off a few weeks back, had returned to the Smallville mines, desperate to reach the portal to the Inverse World. That led to him forming his most unhinged plan yet: because the citizens of Smallville sided with Superman and Lois rather than him, he was going to use Doomsday to destroy the town.

Amanda confronted him about this and what Lois had told her, but he angrily dismissed her, flew to the mines in his new suit and killed Doomsday with new Kryptonite weaponry and have him turn into his final form, as seen above. Now the creature has been unleashed on Smallville, and right now, it doesn’t look like Clark, Jonathan and Jordan have any chance of defeating it.

Why Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor Is Now My Favorite Live-Action Version Of The Character

Prior to watching “To Live and Die Again”, I greatly enjoyed Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor, but I wouldn’t have called him my favorite live-action Luthor. That edge still went to Jon Cryer, who frankly was the only reason I stuck around to watch Supergirl to its completion. But with each Superman & Lois episode, my appreciation for Cudlitz’s Luthor increased, and now after this week’s episode, I can confidently rank him as my #1 live-action Luthor. If we’re talking overall, then Clancy Brown’s version from the DC Animated Universe still holds the top spot, but that’s a topic for another conversation.

This Lex Luthor may not be the mad scientist-type as he’s often been depicted as in the comics, but I’m not bothered by that, especially since he has Milton to handle that kind of work. What’s more important to me is the two key characteristics of his that have blended together so well on Superman: him being a brilliant strategist and his inability to truly care about anyone other than himself.

Regarding that first point, I was reminded of what The Joker told Batman towards the end of The Dark Knight: “You didn’t think I’d risk losing the battle for Gotham’s soul in a fistfight with you? No, you need an ace in the hole.” Now granted, the circumstances in Superman & Lois are different, and as seen in the trailer for the series finale below, Luthor will be fighting both Superman and his teen sons in his spruced-up armor.

As much as I’m looking forward to seeing these action-packed sequences, I’m glad that Lex Luthor simply battling the three heroes wasn’t his endgame. He could have easily just assaulted them on his own and tried to kill them with Kryptonite, but upon learning where Doomsday was, he decided to kill two birds with one stone by having the creature destroy Smallville and eliminate his enemies at the same time. That’s the kind of planning that’s integral to Luthor’s characterization in most depictions and has been done to great effect on Superman & Lois.

As for the second point, there’s no question Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor is a full-blown narcissist. Anything he does is ultimately in service to his desires and goals. He may have wanted to find his daughter and be back in her life, but the minute Elizabeth asked him to drop his mission of vengeance against Lois Lane, he refused. That was more important to him than a renewed relationship with her and getting to meet his future grandchild.

While it may it may have seemed to some like Amanda McCoy was able to pierce that icy exterior of his, he dismissed her just like he did Cheryl Kimble years earlier. He acted as those he and Amanda were in a proper partnership, but everything he did was for his own plan, not the one she wanted to enact together, and he even literally shouted that he could do whatever he wants. Some villains can be redeemed, but barring some major twist in the series finale, that’s not in the cards for this version of Luthor, and I’m perfectly fine with that.

The final episode of Superman & Lois premieres next Monday at 8 pm ET on The CW. After that, Season 4 will become available to stream with a Max subscription alongside the rest of the series at a yet-to-be-announced date.

Warning: SPOILERS for the first five episodes of Superman & Lois Season 4 are ahead!

Following the premiere of “Break the Cycle” earlier this week on the 2024 TV schedule, which pulled back the curtain on Lex Luthor’s relationship with his daughter and ended with one hell of a Doomsday twist, Superman & Lois Season 4 is now at its halfway point. There are just five episodes left to go until not only is the season over, but the DC TV show will conclude its four-season run. So as we go through these final weeks, there’s one big Luthor moment I hope is included before the series finishes: having him actually fight Superman.

So far Michael Cudlitz’s version of the character has demonstrated himself to be a brilliant man and masterful schemer, with notable examples of these qualities including how he used Bruno Mannheim’s serum to transform the Inverse Superman into Doomsday, as well as deducing that Jordan was Superboy and using that information to screw with his head. Until the events of “Break the Cycle,” Luthor didn’t need to worry getting his hands dirty either. Doomsday served as his main muscle, with the beast not only responsible for temporarily killing Superman, but also permanently killing Sam Lane.

But now Lex Luthor doesn’t have Doomsday at his disposal anymore. At the end of “Break the Cycle,” we learned that Lois Lane was able to remind the monstrosity of his past life as the Superman from the Inverse World and convinced him not to keep targeting her family. Luthor was understandably enraged to see his minion was gone, and while I won’t rule out that possibility that he’ll track down Doomsday and find a way to mind control it to do his bidding again, for now, that thing’s living its own life. Sure, Luthor also has plenty of average goons he can arm with advanced technology, but I don’t want Superman & Lois to end without him being forced to finally take on Superman directly.

Now, there are a few ways this could be pulled off. One is that Lex Luthor could simply utilize the aforementioned technology along with some Kryptonite weapons, but that’s kind of boring. I’d much rather see Luthor don the same kind of armor he has in the comics, which boosts his strength and durability and lets him fly and shoot energy blasts, among other capabilities. Jon Cryer’s Luthor got his own battlesuit for Supergirl, so why can’t Cudlitz’s incarnation follow… well, suit (I regret nothing).

As much as I’d like to see this, we also can’t forget that Superman & Lois was made on a much smaller budget compared to the previous seasons. Between the usual visual effects needed for this series and how it can’t be cheap to show Doomsday, there may not have been enough money to depict Luthor’s armor. Which brings me to a third option: having Superman and Luthor duke it out in a good ol’ fashioned brawl, with neither man using any powers.

Since being brought back to life with Sam Lane’s heart, Clark Kent’s powers have started diminishing. He can’t hear as well, it’s more difficult for him to fly long distances, and he’s even getting buzzed from alcohol now. It’s entirely possible that by Superman & Lois’ final episode, all his powers will be gone. If that happens, then it’s easy enough to envision a scenario where he and Luthor are in the same room and the former will need to beat the latter using human-level strength. I’m still holding out hope for the battlesuit approach, but I think the writers could still make this brawl dramatically compelling.

We’ll find out if my wish comes true as Superman & Lois airs its final episodes Mondays at 8 pm ET on The CW. Feel free to also stream the previous three seasons with a Max subscription or take a look at the upcoming DC TV shows.

Superman & Lois is raising the bar for its final season by including the Man of Steel's infamous enemy, Lex Luthor. The next phase of Lex’s revenge is frightening following the Season 4 premiere and, all the while, Michael Cudlitz is proving himself worthy of taking over the mantle of the DC baddie and adding his name to the short list of those who have played the villain on The CW. Now, he’s getting honest about following in the footsteps of Michael Rosenbaum and Jon Cryer.

Just to provide some context, Michael Rosenbaum portrayed Lex Luthor regularly throughout seven of Smallville’s 10 seasons on The WB/The CW. The actor eventually guest-starred in the series finale of the Tom Welling-led show. Years later, Jon Cryer was brought on as the Arrowverse’s Lex via Supergirl, and it was assumed that the actor would reprise the role for Superman & Lois.

During S&L's second season, its ties to the Arrowverse were retconned, giving the producers a chance to cast a new actor for Luthor. Michael Cudlitz's Lex was introduced towards the end of Season 3, quickly establishing himself as a maniacal force. The Walking Dead alum spoke to TV Insider about carrying on the legacy of the fan-favorite villain and addressed any interactions he's had with his predecessors:

Jon Cryer did indeed praise his successor upon his casting in 2023. It's also great to hear that Michael Cudlitz and Michael Rosenbaum had a great exchange, even if it was before the former was tapped for Superman & Lois. As for anyone who might still have their own reservations about Cudlitz now taking on the role, he shared a balanced summation of the situation:

By the time the Band of Brothers alum was tapped to play Luthor, Supergirl had finished its run. And, with that, Jon Cryer’s time in the rold had ended. Those two details, paired with the fact that S&L takes place in a different universe, means it was understandable for a new actor to be hired. Michael Cudlitz has some big shoes to fill, but it’s already been exciting seeing what he brings to the role and how different it is compared to past interpretations.

I do have to admit, though, that it would have been fun to see Michael Rosenbaum return as Lex (even briefly), especially after Tom Welling and Erica Durance returned as Clark and Lois, respectively, popped up in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event. The same goes for Jon Cryer, but it has been fun to see someone else portraying Lex. The only non-Kent family member to be in the main cast for S&L Season 4, Michael Cudlitz's Lex is sure to do more damage that add to the character's evil legacy.

You can catch new episodes of Superman & Lois Season 4 when they air on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW as part of the 2024 TV schedule. You can also stream the first three seasons using a Max subscription.

Warning! Spoilers ahead! 

AMC's massive hit The Walking Dead established earlier on that anything could happen at any time, including the worst. Still, a number of characters made it quite a long time. While none of the cast members on the show appeared in all 177 episodes of the show, here are the actors who appeared in the most episodes of The Walking Dead. 

Norman Reedus (175 Episodes)

Daryl Dixon, played by Norman Reedus, was a fan favorite almost from the very beginning, and by the end of the show, he was hands down the most popular character. Reedus was amazing as the gruff, tough-as-nails survivor and he appeared in more episodes than any other actor, 175 in total. He also returned in the follow-up show The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.

Melissa McBride (174 Episodes)

The character on The Walking Dead that had the most incredible character arc has to be Carol played by Melissa McBride. Carol was a fairly meek housewife to an abusive husband. She didn't stay the way and by the end of the show's run, and McBride's 175 episodes, she was someone you definitely wanted to have on your side against the zombies. 

Lauren Cohan (144 Episodes)

It's hard to believe that viewers didn't meet Maggie Greene Rhee until the second season when the survivors reached the farm. Still, actress Lauren Cohan appeared in the third-most episodes by the end, 144 in total. Though she had one of the most tragic story arcs, she comes out on top at the very end, proving how tough she really was.  

Christian Serratos (130 Episodes)

Fans of The Walking Dead aren't introduced to Rosalita, played by Christian Serratos, until Season 4 and Serratos didn't become a main cast member until the following season. From then on though, she becomes a key survivor right up until the very end when she becomes the final victim of the zombies on the show, after 130 episodes.

Josh McDermitt (130 Episodes)

Josh McDermitt's character, Eugene, is one of the most interesting characters on the show. At first, he's weak, selfish, and spineless, but he eventually grows into one of the most capable survivors on the show, using his smarts to help out in many ways. 

Danai Gurira (126 Episodes)

From the first time viewers see Michonne, played by Danai Gurira, until the end of the show, she was among the most beloved and awesome characters. Though she wasn't introduced until the end of Season 2, Gurira appeared in 126 episodes over the final 10 seasons. And she wasn't someone you ever wanted to mess with.

Seth Gilliam (125 Episodes)

Former cast member of The Wire Seth Gilliam plays one of the more controversial characters, the priest Gabriel Stokes. Though he didn't join the show until Season 5, he played a huge role, both good and bad, with the survivors over the final seven seasons. 

Andrew Lincoln (121 Episodes)

If there is a main character of The Walking Dead, at least in the first nine seasons, it's Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln. He's the de facto leader at almost every point in the show, and the father of two kids. At the end of Season 9 Grimes disappears and at the end of Season 11 it's revealed he's still alive, but only a little is revealed about where he ends up until the follow-up show, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

Ross Marquand (116 Episodes)

Audiences first meet Ross Marquand's character Aaron when he recruits the survivors to join the community he's a part of in Alexandria. From Season 5, when he is introduced, until the end of the show, Aaron is a key character who appeared in a total of 116 episodes. 

Chandler Riggs (109 Episodes)

Carl Grimes was, other than his infant sister, the youngest member of the group of main survivors. Rick's son, played by Chandler Riggs, was a key character in both the TV and in the comic books, though his run on the show ended before the character's arc is over in the comic books. Riggs left the show in dramatic fashion after 109 episodes to attend college. 

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (95 Episodes)

The Walking Dead became known for introducing a big baddie in every season, but no one was ready for Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. As the leader of The Saviors, Negan is absolutely brutal, and within minutes of meeting him, he commits the two most horrific murders in the show's entire history. His character arc is fascinating, however, and it meant he lasted 95 episodes, right up until the end. 

Alanna Masterson (87 Episodes)

Tara Chambler, played by actress Alanna Masterson, starts out as a follower of the antagonist known as The Governor but soon realizes he's a bad person. During the attack on the prison by the survivors, Tara switches sides and ends up an important member of the survivors before she is attacked and killed in Season 9, after appearing in 87 episodes. 

Khary Payton (83 Episodes)

Khary Payton introduction as King Ezekiel in the seventh season was a big moment. Not only did was it a dramatic shot, with him sitting with his tiger, but it brought in a character that would become a key player over the next 83 episodes. 

Steven Yeun (81 Episodes)

The Walking Dead was famous for the brutal deaths of some of its most beloved characters and at the top of that list is Glenn's horrifying death at the hands of Nega in the Season 7 premiere. It was hard to stomach, and even harder to take, emotionally. Actor Steven Yeun's character was a fan favorite and after 81 episodes, suddenly he was gone. 

Cooper Andrews (81 Episodes)

Actor Cooper Andrews' character Jerry is the kind of character everyone loves. He's a bit of a goof, but dedicated and loyal to his people, and very capable. Though the character wasn't introduced until Season 8 and wasn't a main cast member until 10, Andrews still appeared in 81 episodes. 

Sonequa Martin-Green (70 Episodes)

Sasha, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, who appeared in 70 episodes was a character created for the show, rather than in the comic book from which The Walking Dead was adapted. Still, Sasha becomes an incredibly important character from Season 3 when we meet her until her heroic death at the end of Season 8.

Eleanor Matsuura (58 Episodes)

Eleanor Matsuura, who plays Yumiko, is a late joiner to the cast, not appearing until the 9th Season. Still, she proves her worth quickly and appears in almost every episode from there out, a total of 58. 

Nadia Hilker (56 Episodes)

One of the new characters introduced in Season 9 is Magna, played by actress Nadia Hilker. She's a tough customer who seemingly trusts very few people, and who can blame her after surviving the zombie apocalypse for as long as she has. She also survives the final battle in Alexandria at the of Season 11 and is seen living happily with her girlfriend, Yumiko, after 56 episodes on the show. 

Lauren Ridloff (56 Episodes)

Along with Magna and Yumiko, Lauren Ridloff's character Connie is a tough survivor who joined the show in Season 9. Like those characters Connie appears in most of the final three seasons, a total of 56 episodes. 

Callan McAuliffe (55 Episodes)

 Alden, played by Callan McAuliffe, was a member of the brutal Saviors when viewers met him, but he eventually switches sides and teams up with the Hilltop Community led by Maggie. In all, he ended up in most of the final shows in the final 4 seasons, a total of 55 episodes. 

Cassady McClincy Zhang (54 Episodes)

Lydia is a character who is quite different in the show than she is in the comics, mostly due to the changed story arc of her love interest in the books, Carl Grimes. In the show, she is introduced in Season 9 when she is taken captive by Michonne and Daryl. She ends the series alive, 54 episodes later. She was played by Cassady McClincy Zhang.

Cailey Fleming (53 Episodes)

The youngest member of the main cast was Cailey Fleming, who played the older Judith Grimes in seasons 10 and 11, a total of 53 episodes. Of course, the character appears in way more episodes going back to the very beginnings of the show, but for years, she was a baby, presumably played by different people and definitely not played by Fleming.

Lennie James (52 Episodes)

Morgan, played by Lennie James, is one of the earliest characters viewers meet in the show, though he remains an enigma and only occasionally appeared in the early days. James became a main character in Season 6, and in total appeared in 52 episodes over the first 8 seasons of the show before he leaves the group. The character became the protagonist in the first spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead. 

Emily Kinney (50 Episodes)

Emily Kinney played Beth Greene in 50 episodes of The Walking Dead. She was Herschel's daughter and Maggie's half-sister. She was introduced on the show when Rick and the rest of the survivors got to the Greene farm. Initially, Kinney had a much smaller role than those of her family members, but by Season 4 she had become a full-time cast member. It wasn't for long though, as Beth was killed by Dawn in one heck of a disastrous moment that also saw Daryl kill Dawn. 

Katelyn Nacon (50 Episodes)

The second-to-last episode of Season 10 of The Walking Dead is a brutal one. The mysterious character called Alpha proves to be a brutal baddie when it's revealed that her people, The Whispers, have killed a number of people, including Enid, played by Katelyn Nacon. Nacon portrayed Enid in 50 episodes, starting in Season 5. 

Tom Payne (45 Episodes)

The Hilltop Community becomes one of the most important settlements in the post-apocalyptic world and viewers of the show, and the core survivors, are introduced to it by Paul "Jesus" Rovia, who was played by Tom Payne for 45 episodes, starting in Season 7. Jesus is both a spy and an ambassador of sorts for the Hilltop folks, who ends up recruiting and fighting with Rick and the others against The Saviors. Sadly, he doesn't make it past Season 9 when he is killed by The Whisperers. 

Michael Cudlitz (38 Episodes)

What can we say about Abraham Ford? Played by the great Michael Cudlitz who first found major fame on TV as a member of the cast of Band of Brothers, Abraham was a fan favorite from the first time viewers met him in Season 4. That made his death in the Season 7 premiere, after starring in 38 Episodes, at the hands of Negan incredibly heartbreaking. 

Scott Wilson (38 Episodes)

Everyone loves their grandfather and in a way, that's who Scott Wilson's character Herschel Greene represented on the show. The patriarch of Maggie and Beth's family, Herschel is tough, he's fair, and he's righteous. Introduced on the farm in Season 2, Herschel is killed by The Governor in Season 4, after appearing in 38 episodes. 

Austin Amelio (36 Episodes)

Dwight, played by Austin Amelio, always seemed like a reluctant, if brutal, member of Negan's group, The Saviors. With his badly scarred face, he was a standout character for 36 episodes before Amelio left The Walking Dead to join the spinoff Fear The Walking Dead. 

Kerry Cahill (36 Episodes)

For a character that appeared in 36 Episodes of the show, Dianne, played by Kerry Cahill, is the least developed on this list. Cahill is first seen in The Kingdom, playing one of the community's best soldiers, a skill she later takes to the Hilltop Community. For the rest of the series, she is part of many battles, but we never learn too much about her. 

Sarah Wayne Callies (35 Episodes)

Sarah Wayne Callies plays Lori Grimes, Rick's wife, and mother to Carl and Judith. In the first three seasons, she's one of the most important characters on the show and gets herself stuck in a love triangle between Rick, whom she believed was dead, and Rick's best friend, Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal). During Season 3, Lori is forced to give birth to Judith via C-section, and without proper medical facilities, the procedure kills her in one of the hardest moments of the show to watch. In total, Callies appeared in 35 episodes.

Laurie Holden (35 Episodes)

Actor Laurie Holden is one of the original cast members of the show, playing Andrea from the earliest episodes. At the end of Season 2, she gets separated from the rest of the survivors at the farm and is saved by Michonne. Both end up at Woodbury with The Governor, who Andrea grows close to. Trusting him was a mistake as she is eventually taken prisoner by him which leads to her death at the hands of a walker towards the end of Season 3 after 35 appearances. 

Spoiler alert! This story contains spoilers for the Superman & Lois episode “Injustice,” which aired June 20. Consider yourself warned.

It was way back in January that fans learned that The Walking Dead fan favorite Michael Cudlitz would be making his way to the CW’s Superman & Lois to portray the biggest bad in Superman’s story — Lex Luthor. He finally made his debut in the penultimate episode of Season 3, “Injustice,” and according to fans, it was worth the wait. Luthor was released from jail, and we didn’t have to wait too long for his first confrontation with Lois Lane and Clark Kent, and the end of the episode set up a finale that fans on Twitter were calling “nightmare fuel.”

Bruno Mannheim’s story came to an end in the previous episode of Superman & Lois, laying the groundwork for Lex Luthor to be released from prison, and that came to fruition early in “Injustice,” as we saw him walking away as a free and dangerous man. The media assumed he’d be making his way to LuthorCorp, but Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) knew the evil was coming for her. It took most of the episode for the fiercely bearded Luthor to walk all the way to Kent Farm, but that showed how strong his determination was to get to the woman responsible for putting him away for 17 years.

Once he was face-to-face with Lois, he demanded that she retire from journalism — which honestly seemed like a small ask, especially after he pointed out that his wrongful conviction had cost him his relationship with his daughter. However, Lois smartly pointed out that he may not have been guilty for that specific crime, but he was far from innocent, and that seemed to be something the fans agreed on, as they took to Twitter to rave about Michael Cudlitz’s portrayal. One viewer tweeted:

No doubt that was an intense scene, as Lex Luthor threatened not only Lois but Clark too, unaware that he was actually speaking to the Man of Steel. Another fan thought this actor’s take on the classic character was the “creepiest” yet, tweeting: 

During “Injustice” we also got some flashbacks from his early days in prison that showed the startlingly short amount of time it took for Lex Luthor to gain complete control of everything happening inside those gates. As one fan said: 

The ending of the episode set us up for a wild Season 3 finale next week, as Otis took Luthor, upon request, into the sewers where they found none other than Bizarro Superman, who we knew was back from the dead, and we had a feeling he might play a role in Lex Luthor’s evil schemes. The feral Bizarro was shown feasting on rats, before turning his attention to Otis. Poor Otis. Fans seemed excited and nervous about what’s to come from this doppelgänger development, with one tweeting: 

The preview for next week’s finale, “What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger,” doesn’t give much away, but after Michael Cudlitz’s initial showing on Superman & Lois, it sounds like fans are fired up. You can see the trailer below: 

Superman & Lois has already been renewed for Season 4, so that won’t be a concern when the series returns for its Season 3 finale next Tuesday, June 27, at 8 p.m. ET on the CW. In the meantime, check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what other premieres are coming soon. 

Superman & Lois is off this week, but there's plenty to be excited about on the horizon. To start, we can finally rest easy knowing that The CW renewed the Man of Steel's TV series for Season 4. And while it is a bummer to wait for the next episode, the next one should be a doozy. Michael Cudlitz's Lex Luthor will make his debut, and readers won't have to wait much longer to see him. 

If you're still salivating over that brief trailer that showed Michael Cudlitz as Lex Luthor, you'll only have to wait just a bit longer to see his actual episode. Despite a pause in the action in Season 3, Superman & Lois will return with Luthor's debut episode, "Injustice," on Tuesday, June 20th at 8:00 p.m. ET. 

Lex Luthor's entry in Superman & Lois comes after the reveal he's been in jail for 17 years for the murder of Boss Moxie. Luthor took the fall for Moxie's murder, but in reality, it was Bruno Mannheim and his wife Onomatopoeia who were behind it. 

Luthor's release comes shortly after Bruno Mannheim turned himself over to the D.O.D. and agreed to give them all the inside information he had in exchange for the criminal charges being dropped against his son, Matteo. Matteo was facing charges after he helped deliver a serum to his mother that restored her powers and allowed her to escape the D.O.D. compound. 

Lex Luthor's arrival in Season 3's penultimate episode doesn't give him a lot of time to wreck the lives of Lois Lane and Superman, but he's a resourceful man. I'm sure he'll be able to stir up some trouble in the remaining two episodes that he has this season, and will likely set the stage for something even bigger that's coming in Season 4. 

Fortunately, Superman & Lois fans no longer have to wonder if Season 4 will actually happen. One confirmed downside, however, is that Season 4 will have the show's episode count reduced even further, with 10 episodes planned for the new season. It's also been reported that there will be budget cuts across all shows on The CW this coming season, and that characters like Sam Lane won't be returning as a result. 

We don't know what Lex Luthor's big plans are once he gets out of prison, but there is a significant threat roaming Smallville at the moment. Bizarro was revived at the end of the episode, but like others subjected to Mannheim's early experiments, he seemingly had lost the sense of his rational self. We'll have to wait and see if his resurrection is something Season 4 will pick up with, or he'll become a problem much sooner than that. How would Luthor react to having someone like Bizarro at his disposal? 

We may find out soon, as Superman & Lois is back on The CW with a new episode on Tuesday, June 20th at 8:00 p.m. ET. Those looking for a distraction in the meantime would benefit from our 2023 TV premiere schedule, which is loaded with programming for those needing something new to watch. 

Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Superman & Lois Season 3 episode called "Complications." Read at your own risk!

Superman & Lois teased the entrance of Michael Cudlitz as Lex Luthor before Season 3 even began, but the season is almost over, and he hasn't shown up. Fortunately, the trailer for the Season 3 penultimate episode has arrived, and wouldn't you know it? The biggest bad of Superman lore is in it. Not only that, but he's rocking a full head of hair and some long facial hair, and I'm digging it. 

Bruno Mannheim's saga seemingly came to an end following Onomatopoeia's death in the latest episode. Mannheim struck a deal with Sam Lane that his son Matteo would get the criminal charges dropped for his role in freeing his mother from custody if he informed the D.O.D. of his various criminal activities. Mannheim's exit will apparently usher in Luthor, which may not be that surprising for those that have been paying attention to Season 3. 

Superman & Lois dropped a promo ahead of Lex's debut in the series. Check it out, and get a look at what may be the toughest-looking Luthor I've ever seen:

Lex isn't rocking his patented suit or clean-shaven look, but he still very much seems to be the man in charge in these short scenes. We get a brief look at Lex Luthor's time in prison, a mention from Lois that he's "the devil," and an ominous threat made to someone. We learned in a previous episode that Lex was behind bars for the murder of Boss Moxie, though we also know he's innocent of that crime and that the Mannheims were responsible for it. 

We'll likely get more context on Lex's story since his arrest in the upcoming Superman & Lois episode "Injustice," based on what is found in the synopsis. Here's what's said about the episode, which may bring some added context to the promo scenes: 

Jordan and Jonathan are around the sixteen to seventeen age range, so it's safe to say that if Superman ever fought Lex Luthor, it was likely before they were alive. I imagine that Luthor is being released from prison because Mannheim confessed to the murder of Boss Moxie alongside the other crimes he committed, which would connect the two storylines pretty well. 

Lex Luthor might be innocent of one crime, but Superman & Lois fans likely know he's a bad man with worse intentions when it comes to Superman and Lois Lane. I have little doubt he'll be squaring off against them once he's officially on the scene, though I have no idea how The CW series will set the stage for more of Lex in future seasons as Season 3 draws to a close. 

I am curious about just how much of what we've seen in Season 3 will factor into Lex's upcoming story. For example, we saw that Bizarro was back from the dead at the end of this latest episode and looked more like the iteration from the comics than he did in Season 2. Is Lex going to pull Bizarro into what he's got planned, or is that just an adventure for another time? I can't help but feel a bit nervous about all future storylines with no firm confirmation of Season 4, but I am very much excited about the potential of what's to come. 

Superman & Lois airs on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Season 3 is almost finished, but thankfully, there's a full lineup of shows on the 2023 TV schedule to dive into for anyone needing another show to watch when it is over. 

Warning: SPOILERS for the Superman & Lois episode "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" are ahead!

So far in Superman & Lois Season 3, the main threat has been Intergang leader Bruno Mannheim, played by Arrow alum Chad L. Coleman, with his wife Peia, played by Daya Vaidya, providing him some major firepower with her sound-manipulating abilities (talk of adapting Onomatopoeia for the series began in Season 2). But since January, we’ve known that The Walking Dead alum Michael Cudlitz will be appearing as Lex Luthor, who’s already been mentioned numerous times throughout the show’s run. Thanks to events that unfolded in “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,” the stage has finally been set for Luthor to enter the picture, and when he does arrive, it’ll surely lead to scorched earth.

The reason we haven’t seen Cudlitz as Luthor on Superman & Lois is because he’s been in prison for almost two decades. However, rather than being incarcerated for some crime or act of terrorism that Superman prevented, “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner” revealed that he was locked behind bars for ordering the murder of crime lord Boss Moxie years back. However, as we saw last week in “Forever and Always,” it was actually Peia who killed Moxie, as she’d fallen in love with Bruno and joined him in overthrowing Moxie’s criminal empire to seize power for themselves.

Make no mistake, Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor is a full-on baddie. Per the official character description, although the public knows him as a “visionary billionaire, but the criminal underworld knows him as “a brutal psychopath who terrorizes anyone he crosses paths with.” In this case though, Peia used her unique abilities to imitate Luthor’s voice and frame him for Moxie’s murder. 

Cut to the present day, Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Chrissy Beppo were looking through files on Bruno trying to find rock-solid evidence to incriminate him, and they found the recorded phone call that sent Lex Luthor to jail. While listening to the recording, Clark heard the same buzzing sound from when he faced off against the “sound assassin,” so the trio now know that wasn’t really Luthor who confessed. In other words, it won’t be too much longer until this new information comes to light and Luthor is freed from prison, as was teased in a Superman & Lois promo released a few weeks ago, which you can watch below.

It had previously been shared that Cudlitz’s character will look to correct “a personal injustice by enacting revenge on the two people he feels have wronged him — Superman and Lois Lane.” However, it stands to reason Luthor will also learn that he was framed by Bruno Mannheim, and as such will use all the resources at his disposal to exact revenge, no matter the cost. That couldn’t come at a worse time, as “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” not only saw Peia being taken into DOD custody after collapsing from using her powers on the Man of Steel and John Henry Irons, but her and Bruno’s son, Matteo, is also now aware of his parents’ criminal endeavors. 

Lex Luthor coming to Superman & Lois will only be bad news for the show’s protagonists, but now Bruno Mannheim also has reason to worry. Could this lead to him and Superman partnering up in an “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”-sort of relationship? Possibly, although the promo for next week’s episode showed Superman will bring the authorities to Bruno’s home, which could sour such an arrangement. Plus, Bruno might have a few aces up his sleeve. Along with next week’s promo showing Bruno instruct one of his underlings to wake up Henry Miller, the final seconds of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” saw Bizarro Superman, whose corpse was brought into play in “Head On,” opening his eyes. With enough superpowers individuals under his thumb, that might give Bruno enough of an edge to deal with both Superman and Luthor.

Superman & Lois will resume with new new episodes Tuesday, May 23 at 8 pm ET on The CW. Be sure to keep visiting CinemaBlend for continuing coverage on that show and other programming making up the 2023 TV schedule, as well as updates concerning upcoming DC TV shows. Don’t forget the first two seasons of Superman & Lois can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription.

Superman and Lex Luthor have clashed for decades in the comics, movies, TV shows and other projects, and now the time has come for Superman and Lois to depict that feud. It’s been announced that Michael Cudlitz will play Luthor in The CW show’s upcoming third season, and now Jon Cryer, who played the chrome-domed antagonist on Supergirl, has shared his praise for The Walking Dead actor scoring the role. However, that praise was accompanied by a fun warning about Bitisie Tulloch, who plays Lois Lane.

Debuting as Lex Luthor in the middle of Supergirl Season 4, Jon Cryer’s version of the longtime DC Comics baddie caused trouble across 20 episodes of the Melissa Benoits-led series, and he also appeared in the Batwoman, The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow episodes from the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover. As you’ll see from the below comment he shared on Twitter, while Cryer would have been game to reprise to play the Luthor being brought into Superman and Lois, he’s confident that Michael Cudlitz will do justice to the character.

Had Superman and Lois been set in the main Arrowverse Earth, i.e. Earth-Prime, then it’s likely Jon Cryer would have returned as Lex Luthor, although then there would have needed to be an explanation for how he escaped the Phantom Zone, which he was dragged into during the Supergirl series finale (which Cryer wasn’t like at first). However, Superman and Lois’ Season 2 finale revealed that the show takes place on a different Earth, meaning the Superman and Lois Lane we followed along with in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” were not the same versions as the ones Bitsie Tulloch and Tyler Hoechlin play in the show. Since it was established in “Crisis” that not all doppelgängers look alike or are even the same age, the stage was set for another actor to take over as Luthor, and that actor is now Michael Cudlitz.

Speaking of the man who played Abraham on The Walking Dead, after Michael Cudlitz responded to Jon Cryer’s above comment by saying that he’s “really looking forward to this” and has been a fan of Cryer’s work for years, the Two and a Half Men alum responded with this:

Uh oh, maybe Lex Luthor should be more concerned about Lois Lane laying a beatdown on him instead of Superman. Of course, Jon Cryer’s comment is all in good fun, and afterwards he posted a gif of a moment in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” when Bits Tulloch’s Lois Lane knocked out Lex Luthor while he was using the Book of Destiny. Tullock responded to this “claim” with a ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji and then provided some amusing context for how that scene was shot.

Michael Cudlitz being cast as Lex Luthor follows a few months after Titus Welliver’s outing as the character in the Titans Season 4 premiere. Although Cudlitz’s Luthor’s is known to the public as the visionary genius behind LexCorp, criminals know him as a “brutal psychopath who terrorizes anyone he crosses paths with.” After being absent from the public eye for years, Luthor will resurface in Superman and Lois Season 3 to exact revenge on Superman and Lois Lane, who he sees as the two people who have most wronged him.

Superman and Lois Season 3 kicks off Tuesday, March 14 on The CW. Keep track of other small screen premieres coming up with our 2023 TV schedule, and stream Superman and Lois’ first two seasons with an HBO Max subscription.

As is the case in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, doppelgängers/variants in the Arrowverse’s multiverse don’t all look alike. As such, even though Jon Cryer played Lex Luthor for multiple seasons on Supergirl, that doesn’t prevent other DC TV shows from casting other actors to portray the bald supervillain, such as Titus Welliver’s brief appearance as Luthor in Titans Season 4. Now it’s been announced that Superman and Lois has cast its Luthor for Season 3, with The Walking Dead fan favorite Michael Cudlitz filling in the role.

Along with revealing this casting to the world, EW shared what we can expect from Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor in Superman and Lois Season 3. While the general public knows this version of Luthor as the visionary genius in charge of LexCorp, the criminal underworld knows him as a “brutal psychopath who terrorizes anyone he crosses paths with.” When Superman and Lois Season 3 begins, Luthor has been absent from the public eye for years, but he’s resurfaced to enact revenge on Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman and Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane, the two people he feels have wronged him the most.

Michael Cudlitz is best known for playing Abraham Ford on The Walking Dead, first recurring as the character in Season 4, then becoming part of the main cast in Seasons 5-7, along with making two guest appearances following his character’s death and directing four episodes in Seasons 9-11. Prior to joining the AMC zombie series that concluded last November, Cudlitz was recognizable for playing Sgt. Denver "Bull" Randleman in the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers and John Cooper in the crime drama Southland, and in more recent years, he’s starred in the short-lived shows The Kids Are Alright and Clarice. Superman and Lois will be Cudlitz’s second time performing in a comic book adaptation, as he previously voiced Josef/Red Rush in an episode of Invincible Season 1, which can be watched with an Amazon Prime Video subscription.

Given that Superman and Lex Luthor have been arch-enemies in the comics and other media projects for decades, it’s good to see that Superman and Lois won’t forgo depicting their adversarial relationship. Michael Cudlitz’s Luthor is the second villain to be announced for Season 3, with Chad L. Coleman already on board to play Bruno Mannheim, the leader of Intergang, though it’s unclear how Luthor and Mannheim’s goals will connect to one another. Cudlitz is the third new actor overall who’s attached to Superman and Lois Season 3, as Jonathan Kent is now being played by Michael Bishop following Jordan Elsass’ departure from the role.

Superman and Lois Season 3, which premieres March 14 on The CW, will also see Alex Garfin, Sofia Hasmik, Wolé Parks, Tayler Buck, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Erik Valdez, Inde Navarrette and Dylan Walsh reprising their respective roles. Check out our 2023 TV schedule to discover what other premieres are coming up soon.

A good way for an actor to start out is by making a guest appearance on a TV crime procedural series like Bones — the Emmy-nominated show starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz that ran for 12 seasons on Fox. In fact, the fun, clever, and romantic drama inspired by the life of forensic pathologist Kathy Reichs was an early credit, or even first credit, for many actors before really making a name for themselves. Take a look at the 18 actors below and see if you remember when they crossed paths with Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan and Agent Seeley Booth.

Michael B. Jordan (Perry Wilson)

Before becoming one of the most popular and respected actors of his generation with stellar performances in Fruitvale Station, the Creed movies, and Black Panther as one of the MCU’s most memorable villains, Michael B. Jordan was best known for television roles of varying magnitude, such as the time he was guest star on House. Earlier than that, however, he appeared on Season 5 of Bones as a young man who encounters Booth’s protective side when he starts dating Camille Saroyan’s (Tamara Taylor) adoptive daughter, Michelle (Tiffany Hines).

Jaimie Alexander (Molly Briggs)

Another Marvel movies star who guested on Bones just a few years before playing Lady Sif in the Thor franchise was Jaimie Alexander. In the Season 4 episode “The Beaver in the Otter,” Brennan and Booth eventually learn her character knows more than she would let on about the body of a fellow college student found inside the school mascot uniform.

Sean Gunn (Dr. Howard Fitch)

Yet another Marvel movie veteran with a Bones episode on his resume is Sean Gunn, who plays both Kraglin and provides the motion capture for Rocket Raccoon in his brother James’ Guardians of the Galaxy films. Actually, Gunn had already completed his stint in the Gilmore Girls cast and made his MCU debut when he a made a small appearance as a forensic science convention attendee in the crime procedural’s tenth season.

Jennifer Holland (Nicole Twist)

Another actor with both personal and professional connections to James Gunn is his real-life romantic partner and Peacemaker cast member Jennifer Holland. In 2011, the former model also had a brief role on a Season 6 episode of Bones as the sole social media friend of a recent murder victim, with whom she had suffered a falling out regarding a counterfeit handbag.

Aldis Hodge (Jimmy Merton)

Speaking of DCEU actors, Black Adam cast member Aldis Hodge is also known for the TNT series Leverage, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, and the Oscar nominated movie, One Night in Miami…, to name few. He also starred on the first season of Bones as a military veteran still struggling to overcome painful memories when he is questioned by Booth and Brennan about the death of his former comrade.

Laz Alonso (George Warren)

Speaking of comic book adaptation stars, Laz Alonso is best known today for taking out corrupt supes as Mother’s Milk on Amazon Prime’s hit series based on Garth Ennis' The Boys. Years earlier, he appeared on Bones Season 1 as the brother of a woman whose mummified remains were found, along with a bag of methamphetamines, by Brennan inside the wall of a night club.

Giancarlo Esposito (Richard Benoit)

Speaking of The Boys cast members, Emmy nominee Giancarlo Esposito is also known for many other legendary (and very sinister) roles in TV series like Breaking Bad and The Mandalorian. One of his lesser-known (but still pretty sinister) TV characters is that of a New Orleans voodoo shop owner who threatens to curse Brennan when she suspects him of murder in Season 1 of Bones.

Aaron Paul (Stew Ellis)

Speaking of Breaking Bad cast members, three-time Emmy-winning Jesse Pinkman actor Aaron Paul just happened to appear on the first season of Bones before he was cast on the hit AMC series as well. He played a comic book store owner whom Brennan and Booth confront about the murder of a teen who was so obsessed with superheroes that he tried to become one.

Dean Norris (Don Timmons)

Aaron Paul’s Breaking Bad co-star and DEA Agent Hank Schrader actor, Dean Norris, also appeared on Bones — and not just once, but two times. In Season 4, he played the owner of a pitbull who may have been responsible for the death of his own veterinarian, and would return in the uncredited and unrelated role of a court juror in the following season.

Michael Cudlitz (Lucky)

Speaking of actors from hit AMC shows, Michael Cudlitz would join The Walking Dead cast in Season 4 as military veteran Abraham Ford, which is just about his best-known role to date. Years before then, he had a guest spot on Bones Season 3 as the operator of a lodge where people indulge in a unique form a sexual role play involving one person pretending to be a horse and the other their “rider.”

Kyle Gallner (Jeremy Farrell)

In addition to a very brief stint on The Walking Dead (one episode), Kyle Gallner is a bit of an underrated Scream King for his appearances in Jennifer’s Body and the fifth installment of the Scream movies from 2022, most notably. However, his role on the Bones Season 2 episode “The Girl with the Curl” as the older brother of a 9-year-old beauty pageant star harboring a dark secret was not particularly scary, albeit a bit upsetting.

Theo Rossi (Nick Arno)

Theo Rossi of Sons of Anarchy cast and Luke Cage fame dealt with a very different kind of zombie horde when he was cast in Army of the Dead — writer and director Zack Snyder’s Netflix original action-horror flick that was set in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. Coincidentally, the actor also appeared on a Season 2 Bones episode that took place in Sin City, playing the owner of a fight club that Brennan and Booth infiltrate by posing as a couple.

Indira Varma (Inspector Cate Pritchard)

There are also members of the Star Wars universe who have made appearances on Bones — such as Obi-Wan Kenobi cast member Indira Varma, who played Tala Durith on the Disney+ original limited series. The actor played a Scotland Yard inspector  whom Brennan refers to as the “British version of Booth” while working a case together in a 2008 two-part episode set in the United Kingdom.

Jordan Fisher (Ian Johnson)

While he was already well on his way to securing himself as one of his generation’s most exceptional, multi-talented young performers, actor, singer, dancer, and Work It star Jordan Fisher got to put his best talents on display when he appeared on Bones. In a Season 11 episode that is easily one of the more musical of the whole series (not to mention how Pentatonix stars Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying also guest star), Fisher plays a member of collegiate a cappella group whose leader is found dead.

Justina Machado (Lupe Rojas)

Also known for busting some epic dancing moves (particularly with her successful stint on Dancing with the Stars) is Netflix’s One Day at a Time star Justina Machado, who had previously had a major role on HBO’s Six Feet Under. In between, she appeared on a Season 6 Bones episode as the ex-girlfriend of a man who was found dead in a cave along with the woman he left her for, which automatically makes her a prime suspect in the case.

Ariel Winter (Liza)

Fellow sitcom star Ariel Winter (who played Alex Dunphy in the Modern Family cast for 11 seasons) also has a recurring voice role on Disney Channel’s animated series, Elena of Avalor, in common with Justina Machado, in addition to both guest starring on Bones episodes. Actually, the then-8-year-old also appeared alongside Kyle Gallner in the aforementioned Season 2 episode “The Girl with the Curl” as a young dancer.

Taylor Kinney (Jimmy Fields)

Also known for playing a solder in the Oscar-winning 2013 film, Zero Dark Thirty, Taylor Kinney is best known from his recurring role on The Vampire Diaries cast and on Chicago Fire as regular character Kelly Severide. Before any of these credits came about, the actor played a collegiate basketball player whose hot-shot teammate is found dead underneath the gym bleachers on a Season 3 episode of Bones.

Ryan Michelle Bathe (Erin Miller)

Speaking of NBC drama stars, Ryan Michelle Bathe had a memorable recurring role alongside her real-life husband, Sterling K. Brown, in the This is Us cast before becoming the heroic lead of The Endgame cast in 2022. Much earlier, she had a guest appearance on Bones in a Season 4 episode as a woman with a “Cleopatra haircut” who serves as the estate lawyer to a family whose recently deceased loved one is discovered by Brennan to have been murdered when she attends his funeral. 

How many of these guest appearances by Hollywood’s soon-to-be stars rang a bell for you? If you still feel the need to refresh your memory by revisiting these episodes, you can stream Bones on Hulu, or stream Bones on Amazon's Freevee app for free, now.

Have you ever been watching your favorite TV show when a certain actor popped into frame and you could not help but wonder where else you might have seen them? There is a good chance that it could have been another episode of the same program, as many television series have a history of casting the same actor for entirely different roles. In fact we have a hefty amount examples below of actors who have played multiple TV characters in one series.

Giovanni Ribisi On Friends (Condom Guy, Frank Buffay Jr.)

Before he joined the Friends cast in the recurring role of Frank Buffay Jr. - the younger half-brother of Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) - Emmy nominee Giovanni Ribisi made an uncredited Season 2 appearance as a guy who asks if he can retrieve the condom he dropped in Phoebe’s guitar case moments earlier. Considering Phoebe never found out about this sibling until later that season, fans have speculated that Frank and “Condom Guy” are the same person, but this has never been confirmed.

Queen Latifah On The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (Marissa Redman, Dee Dee)

Before she was in the Living Single cast, future Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah shared the screen with fellow rapper-turned-actor Will Smith on two episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1991. She played a vain, domineering actress who hires Hilary (Karyn Parsons) as an assistant for her first appearance, and returned to play a woman whose friendship with Will is tested when he does not defend her from ridicule about her weight.

Jerry Orbach On Law & Order (Defense Attorney Frank Lehrman, Detective Lennie Briscoe)

The late, great Jerry Orbach of Dirty Dancing fame is even better known for his 12 seasons in the Law & Order cast as Detective Lennie Briscoe, for which he received his third Emmy nomination. However, his first appearance on creator Dick Wolf’s long-running crime procedural (which was revived in 2022) was in Season 2 (a year before he official joined the cast) as Frank Lehrman - a lawyer defending a woman who shot her estranged husband and his mistress. 

Justin Theroux On Sex And The City (Jared, Vaughn Wysel)

On the premiere season of Sex and the City, Justin Theroux appeared as Jared - Carrie Bradshaw’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) post-Mr. Big rebound - before showing up again the following season as Vaughn Wysel -  Carrie’s writer boyfriend whose stories are short, just like his bedroom stamina. The star of HBO’s The Leftovers explained on an episode of People Magazine’s Couch Surfing how he prepared for his second role on the iconic romantic-comedy series by shaving his head.

Dean-Charles Chapman On Game Of Thrones (Martyn Lannister, Tommen Baratheon)

It is not so unusual for a Game of Thrones cast member to die and come back later (i.e. Kit Harrington’s Jon Snow), but Dean-Charles Chapman is a special case. The 1917 star appeared in two episodes of the third season as a Lannister House squire named Martyn before being brought back the next year (and with a sweet promotion) as the polarizing King of the Andals, Tommen Baratheon.

Peter Capaldi On Doctor Who (Caecilius, The Doctor)

Because of Time Lords’ regenerative process, the titular hero of the phenomenal British sci-fi series, Doctor Who, has been played by 13 different actors so far - including Oscar-winner Peter Capaldi (who looked to David Bowie for inspiration for the role) from 2013 to 2017. However, die-hard Whovians may recall when the Scotsman and The Suicide Squad cast member appeared opposite the Tenth Doctor, David Tenant, in 2008 as a man The Doctor saves from Vesuvius’ eruption named Caecilius.

Karen Gillan On Doctor Who (Soothsayer, Amy Pond)

In the same 2008 episode of Doctor Who in which Peter Capaldi made his first appearance in a different role, future Marvel movie star Karen Gillan also made her debut on the cult favorite series as a soothsayer who gained psychic powers from breathing in dust from the volcano, Vesuvius. Two years later, the Scottish actress was cast as Amy Pond, who would accompany Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor on adventures until 2012.

Ted McGinley On Married… With Children (Norman Jablonsky, Jefferson D'Arcy)

On Married… with Children (which some believe is due for a revival), the Bundy Family’s next-door neighbor, Marcy (Amanda Bearse), was married twice - the second time to Jefferson D’Arcy, who was played by Ted McGinley after he joined the cast in Season 5. The previous season, he appeared in a holiday episode inspired by It’s a Wonderful Life in which Al (Ed O’Neill) is shown an alternate reality where Peg (Katey Segal) is, instead, married to a more successful, better looking man named Norman Jablonsky (McGinley).  

Terry O’Quinn On The X-Files (Lt. Brian Tillman, Shadow Man)

Emmy winner Terry O’Quinn, best known from the Lost cast, has starred in a number of series created by Chris Carter - including one of the best ’90 shows, The X-Files, as both a police lieutenant in Season 2  and a super-soldier who tries to kill Scully (Gillian Anderson) in Season 9. He was also a regular on another supernatural series by Carter called Millennium, which once crossed over with The X-Files - meaning O’Quinn has really played three characters within this same universe.

Garret Dillahunt On Deadwood (Jack McCall, Francis Wolcott)

Garett Dillahunt is one of the few names on our list who, instead of just two guest appearances, can claim to have two different, multi-episode recurring roles in the Deadwood cast. He played the crooked-nosed murderer Jack McCall in the HBO series’ first season, before returning in Season 2 as geologist Francis Wolcott. He even made an uncredited cameo in the series’ feature-length continuation from 2019 as random drunk.

S. Epatha Merkerson On Law & Order (Mrs. Denise Winters, Lieutenant Anita Van Buren)

Emmy winner S. Epatha Merkerson, who went on to be a staple of the One Chicago franchise, is best known for playing Lt. Anita Van Buren on Law & Order from 1993 to 2010. Yet, her first role on the iconic crime drama was as the mother of two young shooting victims in the the series’ premiere season.

Paget Brewster On Community (Debra Chambers, Frankie Dart)

During Paget Brewster’s temporary absence from the Criminal Minds cast, she had a starring role on Community as Frankie Dart - a consultant hired to help improve things on the Greendale campus. There is a clever joke from Season 6 of creator Dan Harmon’s cult favorite comedy when Frankie claims to have some bizarre trouble when trying to reach out to Greendale’s I.T. department head, Debra Chambers - whom Brewster also played in the previous season.

James Cromwell On Barney Miller (Sgt. Wilkinson, Neil Spencer, Jason Parrish, Dr. Edmund Danworth)

The producers of Barney Miller (one of funniest and best classic mystery shows) cast several actors in multiple guest appearances over its eight seasons, including Oscar nominee James Cromwell. He first appeared as a police sergeant in 1977, a representative of the department of energy two years later, and both a corporate representative and stress researcher in 1981.

Denise Dowse On Beverly Hills, 90210 (Professor Harriet Welkman, Mrs. Teasley)

Years before appearing on the hit HBO comedy Insecure or FX’s acclaimed crime drama Snowfall, Denise Dowse appeared on a total of 24 episodes as part of the Beverly Hills, 90210 cast from 1990 to 2000. In 23 of those episodes, she played West Beverly Hills High School vice principal Yvonne Teasley, and also played a college professor in an episode of Season 1, which was also her first.

Diane Neal On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Amelia Chase, A.D.A. Casey Novak)

Diane Neal has starred on the crime procedural spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (initially as a regular and later in recurring and guest appearances) as Casey Novak - an assistant district attorney who also appeared in an episode of the short-lived Law & Order: Trial By Jury. The actress has actually played two characters in this universe - the first being a stockbroker convicted of the rape and murder of a male stripper who staged the murder of her accomplice as a suicide, on SVU’s third season.

Freema Agyeman On Doctor Who (Adeloa Oshodi, Martha Jones)

Before joining the New Amsterdam cast and starring in The Matrix Revolutions, Freema Agyeman first appeared with the Doctor Who cast as Torchwood technician Adeloa Oshodi in 2006. The following year, she was cast as Martha Jones - a companion to David Tenant’s Tenth Doctor - who was later revealed to be Adeloa’s cousin to explain the resemblance between the two.

Christa Miller On Seinfeld (Ellen De Granmont, Paula)

If her starring roles on The Drew Carey Show, with the Scrubs cast, and on Cougar Town do not earn Christa Miller the right to be called sitcom royalty, how about her two disparate guest roles on one of the most celebrated sitcoms of all time, Seinfeld? Miller contributes to two memorable George Costanza moments - the first being when she cost Jason Alexander’s iconic character a bra salesman position after a disastrous attempt at hitting on her in Season 5. In Season 6, she played a woman already dating George, but her unflattering doodle of him suddenly makes him unsure if her affection is genuine.

Nelson Franklin on The Office (Graphic Design Guy, Nick)

Comedian and Being the Ricardos star Nelson Franklin is known for having notable recurring roles on a number of sitcoms, including with The Office cast as Dunder Mifflin-Sabre’s begrudgingly overlooked IT guy, Nick, in Season 6. Two seasons earlier, he appeared in the episode “Job Fair” as a graphic design expert whom Pam (Jenna Fischer) approaches with interest in the field.

Sean Gunn On Angel (Mars, Lucas)

Before his older brother, James Gunn, cast him in multiple roles in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies (namely Kraglin and Rocket Raccoon, for whom he performed the mo-cap), Sean Gunn play two different characters in the first season of the David Boreanaz-led Buffy spin-off, Angel. The future Gilmore Girls cast member first played a spa manager helping an inter-dimensional demon princess hide other women of her kind from the males who enslave them, before returning a few episodes later as a demon himself - specifically the kind that Angel’s ally, Allen Doyle (Glenn Quinn), is a descendent of on his father’s side.

Hayden Panettiere On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Ashley Austin Black, Angela Agnelli)

Back when she was still best known for Disney movies like A Bug’s Life and Remember the Titans, Hayden Panettiere guest-starred on Season 2 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as the surviving young daughter of two singers accused of neglecting their recently deceased son. Right before joining the Heroes cast made her a household name, the actress and singer appeared on the spin-off’s sixth season as a Catholic high school student whose participation in a sex tape also featuring her classmate and an adult doctor, drove her to murder.

James Jordan On Veronica Mars (Lucky, Tim Foyle)

Years before joining the Yellowstone cast as Steve Hendon, one of James Jordan’s first major TV characters was Tim Foyle - a rival of Kristen Bell’s titular hero from the Veronica Mars cast who appeared in seven episodes, including the 2019 revival season. However, Jordan actually starred in a total of 10 episodes of the hit mystery drama and, for his first three, played a Neptune High janitor ironically named Lucky, who was shot and killed by a school security guard after showing up with an unloaded gun after he was fired.

Michael Cudlitz On CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Officer William Spencer, Josh Barston)

Earlier in his career, former The Walking Dead cast member Michael Cudlitz made a guest appearance on each of the first three editions of the CSI franchise (and each time as a different character, too), but the original is the only one on which he appeared twice. His first played a cop driven to crime by greed in Season 2, and later played a contractor driven to murder by love in Season 9.

BONUS: Kali Rocha On Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Cecily Addams, Halfrek - Confirmed To Be The Same Character)

For years, it was debated among fans of Buffy of the Vampire Slayer whether or not Kali Rocha's roles of Cecily Addams - a 19th Century socialite whose rejection of Spike (James Marsters) resulted in his vampirism - and the vengeance demon Halfrek were the same person. Writer Drew Goddard would confirm in a DVD commentary track (via ScreenRant) that the theory is, indeed, true, which we have chosen to mention as a bonus item on this list just in case there were any fans who may have needed clarification.

Let this list be a lesson to any aspiring actor to never take a TV guest appearance or small recurring role for granted. It could be the first of many appearances on that show alone or could get you promoted to a regular position.

In September 2001, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg introduced HBO subscribers to the landmark television event that was Band of Brothers. Over the course of 10 episodes, the limited series told the story of Easy Company from its days in basic training all the way through the end of World War II in August 1945. Much more than a dramatization of the biggest moments in the European Theater of the Second World War, the highly-emotional and character-driven story of boys becoming men and men becoming brothers introduced the world to dozens of memorable characters. And in honor of the show’s 20th anniversary, we’ve gone through the Band of Brothers cast and checked up on what they’ve been up to all these years later. From leading actors like Damian Lewis and Donnie Wahlberg to then-up-and-comers like Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender, there’s a lot to unpack here…

Damian Lewis (Richard D. Winters)

Damian Lewis already had a respectable career by the time he signed on as one of the main characters on Band of Brothers in 2001, but his performance as Richard D. Winters, the leader of Easy Company quickly made him one of the most promising stars in film and television. At the start of the next decade, Lewis took on perhaps his most notable role with his portrayal of Nicholas Brody on the Showtime series Homeland, which earned the actor a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award. Lewis currently portrays the ambitious and cutthroat billionaire Bobby Axelrod on the Showtime series Billions.

Ron Livingston (Lewis Nixon)

Ron Livingston, who was hot off the 1999 release of Office Space, played Lewis Nixon, Major Winters’ best friend and closest confidant on Band of Brothers. Since the release of the groundbreaking HBO limited series, Livingston has found work in both film and television, including prominent roles in everything from The Conjuring to Sex and the City (along with so many other actors). Livingston currently leads the Amazon comedy series Loudermilk and has a recurring role on the ABC drama series A Million Little Things. He will take on the role of Henry Allen, the father of the titular hero in 2022’s The Flash.

Donnie Wahlberg (Carwood Lipton)

New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg takes on the role of Carwood Lipton, one of the high ranking members of Easy Company on Band of Brothers. One of the most prolific singers-turned-actors in the television world, Wahlberg has leading roles on everything from crime dramas like Blue Bloods to reality shows such as Wahlburgers and Rock This Boat: New Kids on the Block. In 2021 he also appeared on the hit Fox competition series The Masked Singer.

Neal McDonough (Lynn "Buck" Compton)

Neal McDonough played Lynn “Buck” Compton on Band of Brothers. In 20 years since portraying one of Easy Company’s most memorable figures, McDonough has shown up in everything from Captain America: The First Avenger to Sonic the Hedgehog and Walking Tall to Legends of Tomorrow and so much in between. McDonough is set to appear in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and American Horror Story: Double Feature. He also reprised his Captain America character Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan on the Disney+ series What If…? in 2021.

Matthew Settle (Ronald Speirs)

Matthew Settle played the controversial Ronald Speirs, the Army officer who allegedly gunned down six German prisoners of war, on Band of Brothers. Following his turn on the HBO WWII limited series, Settle appeared in several of the most talked about shows of the early 2000s including The Practice, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and the original Gossip Girl, in which he played Rufus Humphrey. Settle has not made any movie or TV appearances since an episode of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders in 2016.

Scott Grimes (Donald Malarkey)

Scott Grimes portrayed technical sergeant Donald Malarkey, whose accounts of the war helped add historical context to Band of the Brothers and the book on which it was based. An already established television star (Party of Five, The Twilight Zone) by the time he joined the cast of the HBO limited series, Grimes has since gone on to have major roles on ER, American Dad (voice of Steve Smith), and The Orville.

Shane Taylor (Eugene "Doc" Roe)

Shane Taylor took on the role of Eugene “Doc” Roe, the Easy Company medic, on Band of Brothers. Following his turn on the hit series, Taylor made appearances in movies like the 2006 drama Bomber and the 2018 Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman military action thriller Hunter Killer. He also was on the History Channel limited series Sons of Liberty in 2016.

Michael Cudlitz (Denver "Bull" Randleman)

Michael Cudlitz shows up in Band of Brothers as Denver “Bull” Randleman, the superior officer of “The Replacements.” Following the successful series, Cudlitz appeared on hit shows like 24, Prison Break, and Lost throughout the early 2000s and eventually landed a major role on The Walking Dead as Abraham Ford for a number of years. He currently plays Paul Krendler on CBS’ Clarice.

Dexter Fletcher (John W. Martin)

Actor/director Dexter Fletcher portrayed John W. Martin on Band of Brothers. Over the years, Fletcher has appeared in movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Patriot, and Muppets Most Wanted. In recent years, Fletcher has turned to directing feature-length films including Eddie the Eagle, Bohemian Rhapsody (he replaced Bryan Singer near the end of production), and Rocketman. 

Frank John Hughes (William "Wild Bill" Guarnere)

William “Wild Bill” Guarnere, the loud yet loyal staff sergeant on Band of Brothers, was portrayed by Frank John Hughes. In the years following the release of the HBO limited series, Hughes appeared in movies like Catch Me If You Can but mostly stuck to television, including roles on 24, NCIS, The Sopranos, and LAX. Hughes is set to portray Frank Sinatra in the upcoming Paramount+ series The Offer about the production of The Godfather.

Kirk Acevedo (Joe Toye)

Kirk Acevedo was already one of the best HBO actors (Miguel Alvarez on Oz) by the time he joined the Band of Brothers cast as Joe Toye in 2001. Since then, Acevedo has continued to show up in one television show after another including Fringe, Blue Bloods, and most recently Arrow where he played Ricardo Diaz, aka The Dragon. Acevedo will next appear on the Paramount+ streaming series The Offer.

Colin Hanks (Henry Jones)

Colin Hanks shows up on Band of Brothers as Henry Jones, who goes straight from West Point to the European Theater of the war. Since then, the son of Tom Hanks has had memorable roles in movies like Orange County, W., Elvis and Nixon, and the two most recent Jumanji movies. Hanks’ television work includes Fargo, Drunk History, and most recently Impeachment: American Crime Story.

Michael Fassbender (Burton Christenson)

Years before he became a star with movies like Hunger, Inglourious Basterds, and the X-Men franchise, Michael Fassbender got his start with a minor role on Band of Brothers as Burton Christenson. Since then, Fassbender has become one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood with movies like Macbeth, Steve Jobs, and 12 Years a Slave. Fassbender is next set to appear in Kung Fury 2 and the upcoming Taika Waititi sports dramedy Next Goal Wins.

Andrew Scott (John "Cowboy" Hall)

Andrew Scott has a minor role on Band of Brothers as John “Cowboy” Hall, the mortar tech who was killed by a landmine. In the years following the HBO limited series, Scott has given memorable performances on shows like John Adams and Black Mirror, with his most recognizable being those of James Moriarty on Sherlock and The Priest on Fleabag Season 2. Scott is set to play Tom Ripley in the upcoming limited series Ripley.

James Madio (Frank Perconte)

James Madio took on the role of Frank Perconte, one of the core members of Easy Company, on Band of Brothers. Over the course of the past two decades, Madio has shown up in movies like Kick-Ass, Jersey Boys, and Bottom of the 9th, as well as television programs such as CSI:Miami, Cold Case, and Blue Bloods. And like numerous other members of the Band of Brothers cast, Madio will soon appear on The Offer.

Ross McCall (Joseph Liebgott)

Ross McCall took on the role of Joseph Liebgott, one of Easy Company’s paratroopers, on Band of Brothers. In the years following the release of the HBO limited series, McCall had runs on 24: Live Another Day, White Collar, and Crash, with smaller roles on everything from Fear the Walking Dead to CSI: NY. McCall will soon appear on the Apple TV+ original drama series Suspicion.

Rick Gomez (George Luz)

Rick Gomez stepped in to portray radio tech George Luz on Band of Brothers. Since then, Gomez has had a mixture of live action voice acting roles in various films and television projects including Justified, Burn Notice, Ray, and Sin City. Gomez most recently appeared in the unaired pilot of the attempted NYPD Blue reboot in 2019.

David Schwimmer (Herbert Sobel)

David Schwimmer was still in the height of his Friends fame when he joined the Band of Brothers cast as Captain Herbert Sobel, the man who ran a tight ship during basic training. In the years following the conclusion of both shows, Schwimmer provided voice work for the Madagascar movies, and made appearances on shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Web Therapy, and Will and Grace. In 2021, Schwimmer and the rest of the Friends cast got back together for the long-awaited reunion special on HBO Max. He is currently one of the leads on the spy comedy series Intelligence alongside Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed.

Tom Hardy (John Janovec)

Tom Hardy, who would go on to appear in movies like The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, and The Revenant, got his start on Band of Brothers when he took on the minor role of John Janovec. In the years since his 2001 debut (the same year he made his theatrical debut with Black Hawk Down), Hardy has gone on to lead shows like Peaky Blinders and movies like Mad Max: Fury Road. Hardy most recently appeared in the 2021 Marvel Comics movie Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

James McAvoy (Pvt. James Miller)

James McAvoy already had a few performances under his belt by the time he was cast as James Miller on Band of Brothers, but nothing compared to the success that would follow in the years following. Since then, McAvoy has led the X-Men franchise as a young Charles Xavier, terrified in Split and Glass, and captivated audiences in the likes of Atonement and Filth. He most recently appeared in the mystery thriller My Son.

Despite being quite a list, this barely scratches the surface of the Band of Brothers cast and didn’t even talk about Jimmy Fallon, Simon Pegg, Stephen Graham, and the many others who popped up at one point or another in the 2001 HBO epic. If you want to get all the information on what HBO will be bringing audiences the next few months, check out our schedule of 2021 fall TV premiere dates.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer launched the careers of several actors including Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz, but did you know they’ve had their fair share of up-and-comer guest stars who have all blown up into huge stars? Wonder Woman 1984's Pedro Pascal and Amy Adams are superstars now, but let’s look back at their humble beginnings along with some other familiar faces.

Pedro Pascal

Pedro Pascal had a one-episode appearance as Eddie in the Season 4 opener, “The Freshman”. A fellow freshman at UC Sunnydale, he and Buffy bonded over looking for her dorm, and they promised to hang out and help each other out through the school year. Poor Eddie is immediately attacked by a vampire after Buffy leaves. He later pops back up as a vampire Buffy has to dust. Pascal first picked up some traction with Game of Thrones and Narcos, but has since gone supernova, playing the titular character in The Mandalorian and starring as the villainous Max Lord in Wonder Woman 1984. If that wasn’t white hot enough for you, he’ll next be seen playing Joel in the hotly anticipated adaptation of the video game, The Last Of Us for HBO.

Amy Adams

Amy Adams popped up in the Season 5 episode, “Family” as Tara’s nasty cousin, Beth. Turns out Tara has demon heritage and all women in her family eventually turn evil. Her family shows up to take her home, except, surprise! This was actually bullshit and Tara is human and it was made up to keep the women in line. Beth wins extra terrible points for calling Tara a “selfish bitch." Amy Adams has since become one of Hollywood’s A-list, including being nominated for six Oscars. Her big screen breakthrough was in the 2007 Disney hit, Enchanted. Since then she’s been in tons of notable movies including American Hustle, playing Lois Lane in the Zack Snyder-verse and starring and producing the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects, based on the Gillian Flynn novel.

Wentworth Miller

Playing Gabe Petronzi in the Season 2 episode, “Go Fish”, Miller played a Sunnydale High School swim team jock-turned Creature from the Black Lagoon. Turns out monsters have been killing swim team members and Buffy thinks he’s next so she plays bodyguard. In reality, the swim team coach has been giving the members chemicals and they’re not actually dying, they’re turning into lizard/fish/monster-people, which Miller's Gabe ends up turning into as well. Wentworth Miller went on to star as the main character in Fox’s Prison Break. More recently, he’s portrayed fan-favorite villain Captain Cold on CW’s The Flash and its spinoff, Legends of Tomorrow. He also came out in 2013, and in November 2020 he put the kibosh on a sixth season of Prison Break stating he doesn't want to play straight characters.

Kal Penn

There’s not a lot to say about Kal Penn’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer appearance, except that it was in a really, really bad episode. Penn played Hunt, a UC Sunnydale student in the universally panned Season 4 episode, “Beer Bad.” Buffy picks up some drinking buddies to drown her sorrows over being jilted by Parker in the previous episode. But since this is Buffy, it turns out a frustrated bartender added a special potion to the beer that turns the students into cavemen. Bonus points because Kal Penn also showed up on Angel as a completely different character! Kal Penn’s most famous role is as Kumar in the Harold and Kumar series. He also had a recurring role on House, but he had to leave it because he took up a job in the Obama administration in 2010 as Director of Public Engagement.

Clea Duvall

Clea Duvall popped up early in a Season 1 episode ("Out of Sight, Out of Mind") of Buffy, playing Marcie Ross. Marcie was so unpopular, even super-losers like Willow and Xander didn’t notice her. Being that they live on a Hellmouth Marcie feeling invisible to everyone LITERALLY TURNED HER INVISIBLE. Cordelia and other popular girls start being victims of her stealthy attacks. After they stop Marcie, we get a weird, X-Files-esque ending in which some G-Men come and take her to a school that will help her. Except they take her to a secret assassination school for invisible kids, the end. Clea Duvall had a string of late '90s hits including The Faculty. She’s also had a steady TV career, most recently as the girlfriend to the first daughter and secret service agent to Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Veep. Most recently, she wrote and directed the holiday rom-com Happiest Season on Hulu, starring Kristen Stewart.

Michael Cudlitz

"The Zeppo" is a great Season 3 episode where Xander feels undervalued and starts hanging out with some trouble-making teens. Turns out they’re trying to raise Bob (Michael Cudlitz) -- a former meathead from Sunnydale -- from the dead and then intend to blow up the school. What’s fun about this episode is Xander’s goofy side plot with Bob is front and center while the dramatic world-ending plot takes a back seat. Michael Cudlitz has had a long Hollywood career in supporting roles including the John Wells TNT cop drama Southland. However, undoubtedly his biggest role was playing Abraham on the AMC zombie hit, The Walking Dead. Most recently he starred in the 2018 show The Kids Are Alright which was cancelled after one season.

Amber Tamblyn

The Joan of Arcadia star played Janice, Dawn’s friend, in the Season 6 episode, “All The Way," when Dawn and her friends participate in Halloween hijinks. You see in Buffyverse Halloween is supposed to be the safest night of the year as demons take the night off. However, the boys Dawn and Janice are with didn’t get the message and are actually vampires who are plotting to kill them. Known for daytime soap General Hospital before her breakout role in 2003’s Joan of Arcadia, Amber Tamblyn is also known for her role in the ensemble coming-of-age drama The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants. She can next be seen in the FX adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man.

Rachel Bilson

Rachel Bilson, much like Kal Penn, had a very small part, playing Colleen, a potential Slayer in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. By this point in the season, the Scoobies are bursting at the seams with potential slayers, with everyone housing them in their various abodes. Xander has a dirty dream about two of the Slayers having a pillow fight. One is played by Rachel Bilson. That’s it. That’s her whole appearance. I guess it’s reasonable to assume she’s there off-camera helping out in the final battle at the Hellmouth? Don’t shed too many tears, though, as she would breakout on the 2000’s mega-hit The O.C. the very same year. Bilson filled her post-O.C. years with guest roles in television before landing her leading role on the popular CW show, Heart of Dixie. More recently, she starred in Take Two on ABC, which was cancelled after a season.

John Ritter

This is a bit of a cheat as this was more stunt casting than casting a future star. Buffy’s mom starts dating Ted (John Ritter) in this Season 2 episode. He seems like a perfect boyfriend, but Buffy doesn’t quite warm to him. Ted reads her diary and learns about her slaying, to which Buffy gets upset. He slaps her, and then she unleashes a can of slayer whoop-ass on him, accidentally killing him. Buffy feels bad about this the next day, but don’t worry, he shows up alive in her bedroom the next night! Is he a demon? No, he’s a robot. Look, early Buffy episodes had some weird plots. John Ritter passed away in 2003 from aortic disease. He’ll best be known for the '70s sitcom Three’s Company. He also had a string of movie hits in the '90s, including Problem Child. He fell ill while rehearsing for his ABC sitcom, 8 Simple Rules and after a brief attempt at heart surgery, he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Conchata Ferrell

Conchata Ferrell played Ruthie the school nurse in the Season 2 episode, “Go Fish." She helped the swim coach use the abandoned Soviet Union drugs to help make the swimmers faster. When she tried to shut down the experimentation, the coach threw her into the pit of mutant high school athlete lizard dudes and they ate her. Ferrell passed away in 2020 from complications from a heart attack, but had a long career in Hollywood. A working actress, she’s best remembered for playing Berta, the sharp and sassy housekeeper in over 200 episodes of the Chuck Lorre hit, Two and A Half Men.

Danny Strong

This one is also kind of a cheat, Jonathan is a fan favorite character who recurred in the early seasons of Buffy as a dorky, lovable high school classmate, and eventually made it to “big bad” status in Season 6 as part of “The Trio." Jonathan, Warren and Andrew teamed up to mostly annoy Buffy but thanks to Warren accidentally killing Tara with a stray bullet, eventually graduated to full-on supervillains. After a bit of redemption, things take a grim turn for Jonathan when a demon-influenced Andrew sacrifices him for his blood so they can open up the Hellmouth, RIP Jonathan.

The real reason to include Danny Strong on the list is he’s had a pretty successful career as a writer and producer, post-Buffy. He won writing Emmys for both Recount and Game Change for HBO, he wrote the last two movies in the Hunger Games franchise and co-created and executive produced Fox’s breakout hit, Empire. He’s also kept busy on the acting front, most recently appearing as the Secretary of Treasury in the Showtime Wall Street drama, Billions.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been a veritable who’s who for guest actors. These are only ten but there’s also been Whedonverse alums like Nathan Fillion, currently seen protecting and serving on ABC’s The Rookie, and Felicia Day, who’s an all around geek queen, including a recurring role as a demon hunter on the recently wrapped up CW hit, Supernatural. Which actor were you more surprised to learn was in Buffy? Let us know below!

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It appears that the lambs have not stopped screaming for FBI agent Clarice Starling, who will now be played by Rebecca Breeds in an upcoming series that continues her story. Joining her in the Clarice cast are the likes of Kal Penn as a fellow agent, Michael Cudlitz as a district attorney already well known to the of the “Hannibal” universe, and many more.

Audiences were first introduced to Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs - the sequel to Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon - which was made into an acclaimed 1991 thriller. Director Jonathan Demme’s film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Sir Anthony Hopkins as the chilling, but charming, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and Best Actress for Jodie Foster as the ambitious FBI rookie. Now, in the tradition of Bryan Fuller’s striking prequel series Hannibal, this new CBS original focuses on Starling’s journey following the case that acquainted her with the iconic, cannibal psychiatrist.

In the event that the series’ lead actress, or anyone else in the cast, looks familiar to you, but you cannot seem to put your finger on why, allow us to help. The is our way of shedding light on the past careers of the biggest stars and most fascinating characters from Clarice, starting with the central heroine.

Rebecca Breeds (Clarice Starling)

Like many other performers from Down Under, Rebecca Breeds on popular Australian soap operas Blue Water High and Home and Away getting noticed by American audiences for recurring roles on the Vampire Diaries spin-off The Originals and Pretty Little Liars on Freeform (when it was still called ABC Family, initially). The 33-year-old actress, who also wrote and stars in a short comedy film called Air that is now in post-production, is leading an American TV series for the first time in the title role of Clarice.

Simon Northwood (Buffalo Bill)

Since you could, technically, call Hannibal Lecter an ally to Clarice Starling, that would undoubtedly mean her enemy is Jame Gumb - nicknamed “Buffalo Bill” for transgender suit he aspires to make from his female victims’ skin - now played by Simon Northwood on Clarice. Thanks to his imposing frame, the 52-year-old Englishman is no stranger to playing bad guys, such as Jay Baruchel’s 2020 thriller Random Acts of Violence, but also some good guys, like on Star Trek: Discovery. other than working as an animator on several Disney films and even Space Jam, he his has kept the most busy in Hollywood performing stunts for films like 300, shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, and even the Hannibal prequel series.

Marnee Carpenter (Catherine Martin)

We experience Buffalo Bill’s treacherous ways in The Silence of the Lambs through the eyes of Catherine Martin, who also appears on Clarice in what is unquestionably the biggest role to date for Marnee Carpenter. However, the young actress has scored bit parts on popular series like Good Girls and fellow CBS crime drama Criminal Minds and ever worked on the set of the Paramount Network hit Yellowstone as a dog handler.

Jayne Atkinson (Ruth Martin)

Catherine Martin’s US senator mother, Ruth, is also coming back in Clarice as played by Jayne Atkinson, who knows a few things about political intrigue from her roles as a homeland security head on 24, Secretary of State on Netflix’s House of Cards, and on Madam Secretary as the Vice President of the United States. The British actress also had a recurring role on Criminal Minds and is best known on the big screen from the first two Free Willy movies and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village as William Hurt’s spouse.

Shawn Doyle (Clarice’s Therapist)

After all Clarice Starling has already been through before even becoming an official FBI agent, I totally support her decision to see a therapist, portrayed by Shawn Doyle on the series - which might be the actor’s biggest role without a given name to date. The 52-year-old Canadian has been in the business a while, previously appearing alongside a few of his Clarice co-stars on Criminal Minds and House of Cards, as well as a recurring spot on The Expanse, playing Bill Priestap in the The Comey Rule miniseries, and, perhaps most famously, the bad guy in Frequency - an underrated sci-fi thriller from 1999.

Caitlin Stryker (Rebecca)

Another native Canadian Clarice star is Caitlin Stryker, or Caitlin Cromwell as she went by before her marriage to actor and filmmaker Bradley Stryker of Altered Carbon fame. Her most notable credits during and since that early period include multiple CW dramas (The Flash, Supernatural, iZombie), an episode of the the recent The Twilight Zone reboot, and she also has her husband’s movie Sheltering Season and TV series inspired by George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead on the horizon.

Kal Penn (Emin Grigoryan)

Clarice actually marks a reunion for Rebecca Breeds and Kal Penn, who previously starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom We Are Men together. The crime drama also marks the second time the 43-year-old actor has played a character with a badge among more famously playing doctors (like on House), stoners (particularly in the Harold & Kumar franchise), or White House employees (on CBS’ Designated Survivor and in real life, too).

Michael Cudlitz (Paul Krendler) 

Clarice marks only the latest of many, many times Michael Cudlitz has played someone who works in criminal justice, from an uncredited appearance as a state trooper in the original Walker, Texas Ranger to his starring role on TNT’s Southland as Officer John Cooper. However, some audiences may find it easier to recognize the 56-year-old New Yorker in a military uniform, which he wore as Abraham Ford on The Walking Dead, in HBO’s Emmy-winning World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, and the Call of Duty video game franchise as multiple characters.

Raoul Bhaneja (TBA)

Variety has been a blessing on the career of British-born Raoul Bhaneja, whose more recent and most notable roles include recurring spots on NBC’s Blindspot and the live action TV adaptation of DC Comics’ Titans series, as well as Possessor - a disturbing horror thriller from David Cronenberg’s son, David. There is know word, however, on who the British-born is playing on Clarice, which makes one wonder - could he be the new Hannibal Lecter?

Reports have already claimed that the cunning cannibal is not part of this new series, but how many times have producers and studio execs tried to pull that sort of surprise on fans? We will be sure to report the truth about Raoul Banejha’s role on Clarice and other fascinating revelations as they are come up on the show here on CinemaBlend.

A zombie apocalypse reunion is coming to Robert Kirkman's new show, with no fewer than six veterans of The Walking Dead assembling to tackle roles for Amazon's Invincible. The Walking Dead cast members range from those who were killed off years ago to those who are still alive and as well as can be in the zombie apocalypse, and they join the already-announced Khary Payton. So, who will be part of Invincible?

The new series will feature Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead's Maggie Rhee) as War Woman, Chad Coleman (Tyreese) as Martian Man, the very red-headed Michael Cudlitz (Abraham) as Red Rush, Lennie James (Morgan, now on Fear the Walking Dead) as Darkwing, Ross Marquand (Aaron) as The Immortal & Aquarius, and Sonequa Martin-Green as Green Ghost. Khary Payton, who of course plays Ezekiel on The Walking Dead, is on board as Black Samson.

While so many current and former Walking Dead cast members coming back together for a Robert Kirkman project is exciting, it's worth noting that Invincible will be an animated series, with these zombie apocalypse alums lending their voices. That said, there are reasons why these actors are significant as additions to Invincible. The show will be based on Robert Kirkman's book of the same name, and Kirkman himself announced the castings at his Comic-Con@Home virtual panel. He shared:

The Invincible comic series hasn't achieved the same level of fame as Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead series even before the AMC series launched, but prospective viewers shouldn't assume that it's for kids just because the show is animated and just because it won't take place in the zombie apocalypse. The comics were known to get graphic, and adults are presumably the target demographic with this show.

The comics, which launched back in 2003 and ran for 144 issues before ending in February 2018, centered on Markus Grayson, the son of a novelist who is actually Omni-Man, an extraterrestrial superhero. Mark's own super powers begin to manifest when he turns 17, and he ultimately begins to train under his father under the superhero name of "Invincible."

An adaptation of Invincible has been in the works as far back as April 2017, although it was originally intended to be a movie with Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg. Then, in June 2019, news broke that Robert Kirkman's Invincible would become a TV show at Amazon with an order for an eight-episode first season.

All of this said, potential viewers shouldn't count on seeing Invincible debut with so many members of the Walking Dead cast on board any time too soon. Neither Amazon nor Robert Kirkman have announced a premiere window, let alone a hard premiere date. Production halted through much of the entertainment industry earlier this year, but hopefully Invincible's status as an animated series means that production could continue.

For now, fans of Robert Kirkman adaptations can always check out The Walking Dead. The first nine seasons are currently available streaming on Netflix, and executive producer Angela Kang dropped some intriguing news about what remains of Season 10. You can find more viewing options now and in the coming weeks on our 2020 summer TV premiere schedule.

The Walking Dead has never been a show for the faint of heart, but even its stars know how far to take things on the apocalyptic zombie drama. One of the show’s former cast members is speaking out over those key death scenes exceeding those limits. Michael Cudlitz’s Abraham was killed off The Walking Dead during the series’ highly controversial Season 7 premiere.

During the seventh season opener, a depraved Negan brutally murdered Abraham and Steven Yeun’s Glenn with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Moving gestures aside, ever since the episode aired, there has been controversy over the violence of the death scenes. For Michael Cudlitz, The Walking Dead walked over a fine line with the sequences, telling Talk Dead to Me:

Michael Cudlitz has an alternative to the move The Walking Dead made, and that would have been not to kill Abraham and Glenn with so little time between. Cudlitz suggests that killing both fan-favorites in such a short span went over the line. In the years since that deadly Season 7 premiere, the actors have moved on, and seemingly so has a large part of the fanbase. Ratings have not been what they once were.

Since his and Steven Yeun’s exits from The Walking Dead, Michael Cudlitz has continued to weigh in on the franchise, including Easter egg activity, and that is not all. Cudlitz has also not been shy about voicing his opinion on that Rick/Negan/Saviors storyline. When it comes to one of The Walking Dead’s most controversial moments in that double homicide, Cudlitz believes it was twice the trauma for viewers, saying:

Michael Cudlitz thinks the double whammy proved too much for some fans of The Walking Dead, and Cudlitz does not blame them. One death of a fan-favorite can be a lot for viewers to process. Two characters within a single season would have still been a huge ordeal, but two in one episode?

That is a lot. Michael Cudlitz has also said that Abraham could have beat Negan. For now, fans of the show will have to live with the fantasy of such a confrontation and a successful outcome for Abraham. As for one of The Walking Dead’s most infamous moments, which started the season, Cudlitz said:

I have to agree with Michael Cudlitz. After all, getting socked in the face or throat is never a great vibe. All of that said, fans of The Walking Dead are used to gruesome twists, and believe it or not, the series has shown some restraint in the past. The initial plan for Beth was even worse than what ultimately happened to her!

The much-anticipated (and delayed) Season 10 finale installment is expected to air later this year. Stay tuned to see if it joins this fall’s premieres. To watch Michael Cudlitz in past episodes (including that one with the rubber machete), you can check out previous seasons of the zombie drama on Netflix, along with lots of newly arriving 2020 content.

Michael Cudlitz has some strong feelings about Abraham’s chances against Negan, and he is making them known. The Walking Dead star opened about his character’s death at the villain's hands, and he did not mince words about what would have happened if the two had gone toe-to-toe, fair and square.

Fans will undoubtedly recall that Michael Cudlitz’s Abraham and Steven Yeun’s Glenn were both victims of Negan’s baseball bat, Lucille. Despite his atrocious behavior, Negan is still alive on The Walking Dead, and Cudlitz was asked if he thinks Abraham would kill Negan. To which Cudlitz responded by telling Dead Talk:

It is interesting for Michael Cudlitz to point out Daryl’s feelings towards Negan. When The Walking Dead left off, Daryl and Negan were kind of getting along. Norman Reedus subsequently explained how Daryl feels towards Negan nowadays, and mentioned that Daryl is still not over Negan murdering Glenn and Abraham.

Fans are currently awaiting The Walking Dead’s postponed Season 10 finale, and Michael Cudlitz has definitely given them some food for thought with his opinions. As Cudlitz points out, a lot has changed as the characters have had to make do with one another. So, while Abraham is not sure a fight would happen nowadays, he is relatively certain of who would be the winner, if one occurred.

The Walking Dead has undergone a lot of changes since Abraham and Glenn were killed off in the Season 7 premiere. So, there is a lot of room for fans and the series’ former stars to wonder “what if,” but Michael Cudlitz is not a massive enthusiast of doing so. Cudlitz explained why saying:

Fans of The Walking Dead may wonder what might have been if Abraham had been able to kill Negan. However, the cold reality is that Negan is alive and ready to potentially die another day. That being said, The Walking Dead did tease what could have been had Abraham and Glenn had lived.

Rick notably imagined a future with Abraham expecting a child with Sasha as they ate dinner with Glenn and his child with Maggie. A future that will sadly never happen. Sometimes “what if” provides so happy of an outcome that it is just too depressing to answer. At least Abraham and Sasha had those scenes in her flashbacks.

Abraham has lived on in The Walking Dead franchise. He got an Easter egg on Fear The Walking Dead, and that is not where Michael Cudlitz’s connection has ended. For instance, Cudlitz has not been shy about sharing his opinion on how the show has progressed in his absence.

The Walking Dead star shared that he really hated the storyline between Rick, Negan, and the Saviors. Do not hold back! As for his exit as Abraham, Michael Cudlitz sounds contented with the fact Abraham chose to go out on a heroic note. If there were a “what if” that made an Abraham/Negan re-match possible, it would take away Abraham’s sacrifice.

Who do you think would win if Abraham and Negan had gone head-to-head in a fight? Vote below!

This poll is no longer available.

The Walking Dead’s Season 10 finale has not aired yet, so stay tuned until after this summer’s premieres. To catch Michael Cudlitz’s Abraham in past episodes, you can check out previous seasons of the zombie drama on Netflix, along with newly arrived 2020 content.

Of all the big and popular ensemble casts on TV, perhaps none have changed with the frequency and emotional trauma of The Walking Dead, which doesn't go a single season without at least one game-changing death or character exit. To be expected, not every former Walking Dead actor left the show in the same way as everyone else.

Below, we've rounded up all the major Walking Dead cast member exits from the past ten years, noting the reasons why each one had to go. Sometimes it's about the plot, sometimes it's about things that are completely outside The Walking Dead's influence, but it always affects the drama. Let's kick things off with the future-Punisher himself.

Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh)

In fighting for the role of Rick Grimes' friend-turned-enemy Shane Walsh, actor Jon Bernthal knew that the character's Walking Dead shelf-life was limited. In fact, Robert Kirkman has stated that Shane's Season 2 death was planned even before the series' first episode was shot, and that the shocker would have happened in Season 1 if it had lasted for double its six-episode length.

While it wasn't exactly a cause-and-effect case, Jon Bernthal's exit on The Walking Dead was also somewhat expected by savvy TV viewers, since the actor had been announced as a lead in TWD co-creator Frank Darabont's cable drama Mob City, which only lasted for one season. Since The Walking Dead, Bernthal has portrayed an even more prominent comic book character for Netflix's The Punisher, which had its own controversial exit.

Lauren Cohan (Maggie Rhee)

Having joined The Walking Dead back in Season 2, Lauren Cohan quickly started crushing it when bringing the comic book's Maggie Greene to life, especially as the character's development expanded over the years. Cohan's exit in Season 9 was no doubt overshadowed somewhat by Andrew Lincoln's Rick situation, but it was recently revealed that she will be returning as a series regular in Season 11, and might even show up sooner.

Lauren Cohan made the decision to leave The Walking Dead in Season 9, having landed a starring role on the ABC drama Whiskey Cavalier. That gig coincided with publicized disputes between Cohan and execs over contract negotiations, but there don't appear to be any long-lasting hard feelings, considering her impending return. Unfortunately for Cohan and ABC and everyone who worked on Whiskey Cavalier, that genre-bending series earned lower-than-expected ratings, leading the network to cancel it, then offer up hope, and then cancel it again. But hey, more Maggie!

Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes)

As The Walking Dead's leading female character Lori Grimes, Prison Break vet Sarah Wayne Callies wasn't exactly a fan favorite during those first three seasons, and so it wasn't exactly a debilitating drawback for viewers when she was written out of the show in Season 3. That said, her death was indeed a gut-wrenching and gross one, as she succumbed to a prison-set C-section while giving birth to Judith.

Lori Grimes did indeed die in Robert Kirkman's comic book, although it happened differently there (and involved the infant Judith's death). This wasn't an instance where the actor had anything negative to say about getting killed off, though, as Sarah Wayne Callies went into the season saying that she also believed that Lori had to be killed off in order to provoke Rick's emotional downfall.

Chad Coleman (Tyreese Williams)

A fan-favorite character in both the comics and the TV show, Tyreese anchored completely different stories across the two mediums, entering the TV show much later in the timeline than the original version. (Comic Tyreese shows up in in issue #7, right after Shane dies.) The late introduction could have afforded Chad Coleman's Tyreese an extended stay on the AMC drama, but he was killed off as the back half of Season 5 started. Here's how Coleman said then-showrunner Scott Gimple explained killing Tyreese off:

Lots of other characters beyond Tyreese could have invoked similar feelings without having to lose Chad Coleman's peacekeeping, if unsettled, character. As cool as the various cameos were during the sequence, the manner in which it happened – he was bitten while on a side trek to find Noah's "of course they're dead" parents – didn't help win the death any points with fans. Thankfully, Coleman has kept his genre-heavy career up with shows like Arrow, The Expanse, and the now-on-Hulu The Orville, and while he quit watching The Walking Dead in recent years, he'd be down for a properly crafted return.

Lennie James (Morgan Jones)

Though he only appeared in a handful of episodes across The Walking Dead's first five seasons, Lennie James' Morgan Jones was nonetheless a hugely important element in the live-action universe, due in part to the character's larger presence in the comic book series. (And also due to James' excellence as an actor, of course.) Morgan's comic book existence came to an end long before Negan's introduction, so the character was seemingly living on borrowed time as soon as James became a series regular in Season 6.

But The Walking Dead's Powers That Be made a particularly rare move in removing Lennie James' Morgan from The Walking Dead not by killing the character off, but by making him the first living being to jump between the flagship series and the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead. James has been a part of Fear the Walking Dead for two full seasons now, though that show's most recent season finale's cliffhanger ending threw his future into question.

Laurie Holden (Andrea)

Though Laurie Holden's performance as The Walking Dead's Andrea was solid and well-regarded by fans, the character was unfortunately distanced from her comic book counterpart. She unfortunately got written into a hole in Season 3 as the Governor's lover – against all possible common sense – and the decision was made to kill her off in the finale. Robert Kirkman claimed there was a lot of back-and-forth talk between the writers about Andrea's fate, with the decision to kill her coming late in the game.

Laurie Holden stated she only found out about being written off less than a week before the episode filmed, and has later come out and claimed that the fan backlash over her Season 3 arc and death are what led to then-showrunner Glen Mazzara having to step down. Holden, who went on to have arcs in The Americans and Proven Innocent, also later called Andrea and the Governor's story "utter nonsense."

Scott Wilson (Hershel Greene)

A Hollywood great going back to the 1960s, Scott Wilson landed the Walking Dead role of Hershel Greene for Season 2's farm introduction. By the time of his decapitation in Season 4, he'd become one of the most sage members of Team Family, as well as one of its most tragic survivors. (The writers decided to forego an earlier decision to kill him off all the way back in Season 2, and fans were all the better for it.)

Scott Wilson, who went on to take roles in Bosch and Netflix's recently cancelled drama The OA, did not seem to have an issue with being killed off of the show, either, since he returned both for Robot Chicken's Walking Dead special and for the Season 9 Walking Dead episode that served as Rick's final installment. Sadly, he passed away in October 2018.

Tom Payne (Paul "Jesus" Rovia)

The Walking Dead's Jesus maintained a long stint as a fan favorite within the comic book series, and actor Tom Payne quickly won over TV viewers with his take on the ass-whooping protagonist. Unfortunately for most parties, TV Jesus didn't get to fully take on all of the original version's claims to fame, with the signature armor and hairstyle coming for Payne only in the end. Also, Comic Jesus never died in the first place.

Why The Walking Dead's Big Midseason Finale Death Didn't Really Bother The Star

TV Jesus did, though, and Tom Payne told CinemaBlend that he was a bit tired of the role's limitations in recent seasons, and that he felt the creative team saw where he was coming from. Which isn't to say that's the precise reason why Jesus was chosen to be the first of the Whisperers' victims in Season 9, before he could even start his comic relationship with Aaron, but it could be in the same foggy, forested ballpark. Luckily for the actor and his fanbase, Payne rather quickly scooped up the co-lead role on Fox's Prodigal Son, replacing the previously cast Finn Jones. Payne's Jesus appeared for the final time in a flashback for Episode 11.

David Morrissey (Philip "The Governor" Blake)

U.K. great David Morrissey joined The Walking Dead as the comic's most deadly villain at that point in the story, The Governor. Throughout Season 3's introduction to the Woodbury community, The Governor was a beast of a villainous leader whose past inspired the most reluctant kind of empathy. The Walking Dead's creative team unfortunately decided to introduce the prison flu side-narrative to open Season 4, and Morrissey only appeared in three more episodes before getting killed off in the midseason finale.

For all the respect he's given the show, the actor was possibly bothered somewhat by getting sidelined ahead of The Governor's death, especially since the villain was responsible for the heinous act of killing off Scott Glenn's Hershel. Still, Morrissey holds his Governor up as The Walking Dead's greatest villain, and he did make a final appearance in Season 5, as part of Tyreese's pre-death hallucinations, before joining other projects such as Britannia and Marvel's upcoming Black Widow feature.

Emily Kinney (Beth Greene)

After being a second-tier character in Seasons 2 and 3, Emily Kinney's Beth got developed more in the back half of Season 4 after Hershel died and she became a close companion for Daryl. Beth and Daryl became one of the biggest positive-minded topics within the fanbase, so it was that much larger of a gut-punch whenever The Walking Dead made her MIA for a short while and then killed her off in the Season 5 winter finale. Yes, there were backlashes.

Emily Kinney was having a blast on The Walking Dead, but it seems like the creative team specifically made her more prominent just to make her eventual death that much more memorable. Certainly not an unheard of move on this show or others, and it was helped by Beth not being a comic-sourced character. Still, the actress' exit was weakened somewhat by the lackluster Grady Memorial Hospital group. Kinney later returned in audio form for Rick's Season 9 exit, and has been seen since that 2015 death as a Flash villain, as a Conviction lead, and she's got the upcoming Netflix drama Messiah. (She no longer watches The Walking Dead, though.)

Steven Yeun (Glenn Rhee)

Until Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes got nearly killed off and taken away by helicopter, it seemed like no Walking Dead exit could ever top Negan murdering Steven Yeun's Glenn. The gory massacre was preceded by arguably The Walking Dead's most widely criticized creative choice, Glenn's dumpster-loving fake-out death, and concluded the rage-inducing cliffhanger that limited the TV show's promotional push for its full summer hiatus. It didn't help that the scene previous death made it seem like Glenn was safe. According to creator Robert Kirkman, discussions were had about how to keep Yeun's Glenn around:

Despite taking its visual cues from the comics, the savagery of Negan's actions in the Season 7 premiere turned a lot of fans away from The Walking Dead. The move also sparked some interesting reactions from Steven Yeun himself, who was of the opinion that the show's writers often didn't know what to do with Glenn as a character. Like others seen here, Yeun stopped watching the show at some point, and likely wouldn't be interested in returning to the role.

Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford)

An actor that seemed genetically created to take on the role of The Walking Dead's Abraham Ford, Michael Cudlitz's time on the TV show largely lined up with the comics for the character's earliest days. Cudlitz's Abraham lived beyond the comic version's death, which surprisingly went to Merritt Wever's Denise on TV, but Scott Gimple & Co. had Abraham join Glenn as Negan's big victims to kick off Season 7. It's something Cudlitz got more critical recently, saying:

When appearing on Talking Dead after the Season 7 premiere, Michael Cudlitz talked about initially surviving beyond Comic Abraham's death, and thinking he might have a future, considering he was getting closer with Sasha and working out some of his own demons. That clearly didn't happen, though. Cudlitz has found work outside of the Dead-verse, such as on the short-lived comedy The Kids Are Alright, but he now has three different Walking Dead episodes under his belt as a director, with more likely to come.

Corey Hawkins (Heath)

This entry is unique for this list, since Corey Hawkins didn't ever reach series regular status on The Walking Dead during his truncated stint. However, his character Heath was a big deal in the comics for nearly two-thirds of the issues, so he likely would have been, had Hawkins' career not exploded right around the time he got cast.

As Walking Dead fans started getting excited about Heath in live-action, Straight Outta Compton earned $200 million+ at the box office. Because Corey Hawkins only recurred as Heath, he didn't have to shy away from other roles, and he'd landed both Kong: Skull Island and Fox's short-lived 24: Legacy by the early days of 2016, sealing Heath's fate. Appearing in only four Season 6 installments, Hawkins returned for a single Season 7 episode, and inexplicably disappeared. Years after the fact, Walking Dead franchise overseer Scott Gimple confirmed that Heath plays into the helicopter trading system that Jadis is/was part of, so he still might show up again in the Rick Grimes movies. Unless some other project he has gets huge around that time.

Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes)

As one of the TV show's biggest deviations from the Walking Dead comic book, Carl's doomed Season 8 fate was a major jaw-dropper. (Though it didn't help things that the character's death was stretched across the winter finale and spring premiere.) It turns out audiences weren't the only ones blindsided by the news of Carl's walker bite, either, as Riggs and his family were taken aback by then-showrunner Scott Gimple's narrative choices, as were some co-stars.

In the months ahead of Carl's death, Chandler Riggs had apparently purchased a house in Senoia, Georgia near The Walking Dead's filming locations, just in case anyone had any doubts about the actor's assumptions about his future on the show. Riggs said at the time that he was put in a bit of a pickle by the fiasco, and his dad also had some choice words for Scott Gimple. Riggs recently purchased a new house in Hollywood, though, having landed a role on ABC's A Million Little Things. Here's hoping he gets more foreknowledge about his fate on that show.

Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams)

While her onscreen lover Abraham took a bloody dive after being crushed by Lucille, Sonequa Martin-Green's Sasha took matters into her own hands. Rather than living as Negan's emotionally wrought prisoner, Sasha poisoned herself, with an end goal of surprise-attacking the villain after turning into a walker.

In real life, Sonequa Martin-Green also took the lead on her career path by securing the lead role in CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery, which necessarily meant she would need to step back as a Walking Dead lead. Which, of course, led to her character's exit, though Martin-Green made a peaceful return for Rick's final episode, similar to how Michael Cudlitz came back for Sasha's final ep. The actress is still going strong in Star Trek's universe, with Discovery set for Season 3 in 2020.

Austin Amelio (Dwight)

In joining The Walking Dead as the redemption-minded Dwight, Austin Amelio knew he was in for long hours in the makeup chair, given the character's facial burn scars. The actor also likely thought he was in it for the long haul, since Dwight's survival went on until fairly late in the comic book's narrative. So it was probably a huge surprise when Amelio got word from producers that his character was exiled by the Alexandria community and wouldn't be returning to The Walking Dead for the time-jumping Season 9.

Fans wondered what happened to Dwight after the All Out War between Team Family and the Saviors, and there wasn't a very straightforward definition given to explain why Austin Amelio wasn't around anymore. (Beyond the in-show goal of trying to find his wife Sherry.) That same set of fans was pleasingly shocked to discover that the Walking Dead universe wasn't done with Dwight yet, and Amelio joined Lennie James on the Fear the Walking Dead cast for Season 5. It's still not very clear why The Walking Dead completely changed up the character's comic storyline for TV, but it kept things refreshing for Fear's core ensemble.

Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes)

For years, Rick Grimes seemed like the most impossible-to-kill character in both the Walking Dead comic and TV universes, so when the news broke that Andrew Lincoln would be leaving The Walking Dead in Season 9, fan reactions were heightened across the board. The emotional backlash was somewhat sated by the news that there would be a trio of Rick Grimes feature films, but it was still a major blow to the show, which has continued falling in the ratings despite higher critical acclaim under showrunner Angela Kang.

The reason for Andrew Lincoln's departure didn't come from up high, but from the actor himself, who had initially intended to bow out of the show in Season 8. The way Lincoln explained things, he aimed to spend more time with his growing family in and around their U.K. home without being obligated to spend so many months out of the year filming The Walking Dead in Georgia. However, he also wanted to make sure Rick's story got a worthwhile conclusion, and his apprehension over exiting urged him to stick around for the first chunk of Season 9. Still no sign of when those Rick movies are happening, though.

Pollyanna McIntosh (Jadis)

Jadis, or Anne, has been one of The Walking Dead's most prominent original-for-TV characters in recent years, and Pollyanna McIntosh's word-mincing junkyard dweller developed a faithful fanbase that was rocked by her final episode in Season 9. Jadis not only took the franchise-crossing helicopter storyline to new heights (literally) in that episode, but she also saved Rick after his bridge sacrifice.

Because Jadis' self-imposed exit didn't involve her death, and because it was revealed Pollyanna McIntosh would also be a part of the Rick Grimes movies, not a lot of information has been shared about the specific reasons why the creative team went that way with Jadis' story. McIntosh has kept pretty busy while waiting for those Walking Dead films, though; she directed her first feature, the Jack Ketchum adaptation Darlin', and also starred in the second (and final) season of AMC's extremely unique Lodge 49.

Alanna Masterson and Katelyn Nacon (Tara Chambers and Enid)

Alanna Masterson's Tara and Katelyn Nacon's Enid weren't the most comparable survivors, to be sure, but the characters met such similar fates that it felt proper enough to group them together to cap this list off. Tara's journey from Governor-follower to Hilltop leader was an important one, as was Enid's rise from depressed orphan to a dependable and intelligent quasi-doctor, but both of them met severely dark fates in Season 9 (along with a bunch of other characters) as victims of Alpha's big fair massacre.

Executive producer and frequent episode director Greg Nicotero explained around that episode's airing why the creative team decided to kill off Tara and Enid.

Katelyn Nacon claimed that The Walking Dead's showrunner Angela Kang had alerted her of the possibility that Enid might not survive Season 9, but it wasn't until the week before the death episode went into production that the actress got the final word. Similarly, Alanna Masterson says she only learned of Tara's death in the days before the penultimate episode started filming. While Masterson has yet to land a regular gig outside of The Walking Dead, Nacon was recently in Season 2 of Hulu's Light as a Feather.

There's no doubt that even more Walking Dead stars will be vacating the show before it wraps up its extended run at AMC (which might not technically happen for at least another decade, depending on how network execs continue feeling about the show's drooping ratings in recent years. Until then, though, keep tuning into the zombie drama every Sunday night on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Michael Cudlitz enjoyed his time on The Walking Dead, and he also seems to enjoy the AMC series as a fan. That said, fans are never completely satisfied all the time, and neither was Cudlitz when the show featured a moment that he felt was stupid. Specifically, Cudlitz was particularly miffed on how Rick handled the situation with the Saviors in the Season 8 premiere to the point he thinks Rick should've been killed by Negan instead of him.

Michael Cudlitz didn't mince words when talking about the scene, which was criticized by media and fans alike for the same reason. While the move to trap the Saviors in with the Walkers attracted to the noise was successful, it didn't make sense why Rick and crew wouldn't just kill Negan. Attendees at Walker Stalker Con Atlanta (via Comicbook.com) reacted with a mixture of laughter and gasps, perhaps implying Cudlitz's opinion is correct to some and polarizing to others.

Some gasps may have been from the frankness of Michael Cudlitz's words, especially given his occasional appearances on the program post-exit. Eugene actor Josh McDermitt was also in attendance and stated that he liked the scene but joked it was because he's "still on the show and like my job." Cudlitz followed on his former co-star's joke with more of his thoughts on the moment and why he's okay with airing out his grievances on The Walking Dead.

So even if Michael Cudlitz is doing the convention circuit and openly expressing his distaste for aspects of how The Walking Dead does certain things, at least he's doing it as a fan. Additionally, he's specifically referencing a scene he's wasn't involved in, which removes any bias he may have towards what happened. One would think there was no love lost for Rick and his poor decision making on Cudlitz's end when Andrew Lincoln exited the show in Season 9.

The Walking Dead returns from its break on AMC Sunday, February 10 at 9:00 p.m. ET. For a look at what all is happening on television towards the end of 2018 and the start of 2019, visit and bookmark our handy fall and midseason premiere guides.

Abraham Ford died a gruesome death back in The Walking Dead's Season 7 premiere, which meant that fans had to say goodbye to actor Michael Cudlitz. He was able to reprise his role for some flashbacks as Sasha remembered him shortly before her death, but the odds are pretty good that we've seen the last of Cudlitz in the present on The Walking Dead. His death doesn't mean his absence from the entire Walking Dead universe, however, as a Fear the Walking Dead Easter egg in the Season 4 midseason finale tied to his character. Here's how Cudlitz reacted to his Fear the Walking Dead Easter egg:

Michael Cudlitz shared his reaction to the Easter egg on Twitter, and it's safe to say that he's not the only one with the "Wtf?!?!?" reaction. The nod to Abraham was so well hidden that plenty of fans may not have even realized it had appeared until Chris Hardwick called attention to it on Talking Dead after the episode. In case you were (understandably) one of the ones who missed it, here's what happened.

In Fear the Walking Dead's midseason finale, Madison was rummaging through many of Althea's tapes. Althea is a careful labeler when it comes to her tapes, and one of them just so happened to be labelled "Abe/Doctor." Yes, Althea apparently crossed paths with Abraham and Eugene at some point in their travels, presumably while Abraham and Eugene were in or around Texas on their journey toward Washington D.C. Rosita's name doesn't appear on the label, so the tape was probably either recorded before Abraham and Eugene picked up Rosita or Rosita simply didn't contribute. Fear the Walking Dead managed to include Abraham in an episode without actually bringing in Michael Cudlitz.

Back before Fear the Walking Dead's big time jump between Seasons 3 and 4, Abraham seemed like a likely candidate to appear on The Walking Dead spinoff series. He began his zombie apocalypse journey in Texas, and it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch to imagine that Abraham got mixed up with the Fear crew before meeting up with Rick and Co. The character to cross over ultimately proved to be Morgan, and the time jump means that a living Abraham can't appear on Fear the Walking Dead in the present.

That said, perhaps the tape could provide a way for Michael Cudlitz to reprise his role as Abraham one more time. Cudlitz and Josh McDermitt could hypothetically get together and film an interview as their characters for Althea, and she could play their interview on Fear the Walking Dead. McDermitt is still working on The Walking Dead as Eugene; maybe Cudlitz could drop by for an afternoon and film an interview. Interestingly, Cudlitz was or is in Atlanta, where The Walking Dead films. He shared this on Twitter:

Could Michael Cudlitz be in Atlanta to secretly film another Fear the Walking Dead Easter egg? Stranger things have happened in The Walking Dead universe, but we'll have to wait and see. Fear the Walking Dead returns for the second half of Season 4 on Sunday, August 12 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The Walking Dead won't be back until the fall. For your viewing options now that the zombie apocalypse is on a break, be sure to check out our summer TV premiere schedule and our 2018 Netflix guide.

Fans of The Walking Dead are about to see their favorite actors breathe life into whole new characters. Lauren Cohan and Michael Cudlitz are both headed to the alphabet network in two very different, yet funny new series. ABC has given series orders to both actors' pilots. Here is what we know.

Let's begin with Lauren Cohan, who will star in Whiskey Cavalier. The hour-long dramedy is an action-oriented adventure series that will star Cohan as Francesca "Frankie" Trowbridge, a CIA operative with the codename: "Fiery Tribune." According to ABC's announcement of the series' pickup, it will chronicle Frankie's partnership with FBI super-agent Will Chase (Scott Foley), as they lead an inter-agency team of misfit spies. Their hurdles include steering through the murky minefield of friendship, romance, and office politics.

TV Line shared the news of Michael Cudlitz's new series The Kids Are Alright being picked up, and it sounds similarly quirky to Lauren Cohan's. The sitcom, which is set in the 1970's, will star Cudlitz as the patriarch of a huge Irish-Catholic family, which includes eight (yes, eight) sons. He raises the boisterous bunch alongside his wife Peggy (Mary McCormack), and everything seems to be running smoothly. That is until their oldest son returns home, having quit seminary with startling plans to "save the world." It sounds like this family will have their hands full.

For those wondering how Lauren Cohan's new series will impact her run on The Walking Dead, we know that she will be around for Season 9. How long remains a mystery viewers will have to untangle when the next season debuts. ABC green-lighting the show definitely brings Cohan's tenure on The Walking Dead into question. Can she do both shows? Stranger things have happened; especially if the new show ends up shooting in Atlanta. Clive Standen pulled double duty on History's Vikings and NBC's Taken.

As for Lauren Cohan and Michael Cudlitz, both actors' new shows sound pleasantly similar to successful shows that have come before. Whiskey Cavalier is giving off Chuck vibes with hints of Bones, while Cudlitz's The Kids Are Alright sounds like a light-hearted version of American Dreams meets The Wonder Years. None of those series are bad company to keep.

Whiskey Cavalier hails from writer/executive producer Dave Hemingson with Scrubs' creator Bill Lawrence, onboard as one of the series' executive producers. Former Last Man Standing showrunner Tim Doyle is the creator behind The Kids Are Alright.

Whiskey Cavalier and The Kids Are Alright are both expected to premiere during the 2018-2019 broadcast season on ABC. In light of all of the cancellations, it is nice to hear some good news. For the latest on what to expect next season, check out our 2018 network TV rundown. If you are wondering what's coming up in between now and fall, we have you covered there too. Check out which new and returning shows will be on during the hot season with our summer premiere schedule.

Since exiting the cast of The Walking Dead a couple of years ago (minus a surprise appearance late in Season 7), actor Michael Cudlitz has been waiting for that next big role, and he may have just found it in a new show from former Last Man Standing showrunner Tim Doyle. Cudlitz has been tapped to take a comedic turn with a starring role in Doyle's currently untitled ABC comedy pilot. Don't expect a lot of blood and guts from this one, but the mustache is certainly a possibility.

For the new project, Michael Cudlitz is set to play the blue-collar husband and father Mike Dwyer, according to Deadline. Mike and his cookie-cutter wife are responsible for the livelihoods of eight rambunctious sons, and yes, it's a plot point that they are Irish-Catholic. The single-camera comedy will be set in the 1970s, and the large Dwyer family will bob and weave through the many tumultuous changes that the decade had to offer, both on a public and personal level. So as you can see, since it's all taking place in the '70s, Cudlitz's signature mustache would be right at home, even if porn acting doesn't enter into the narrative.

Should this untitled comedy pilot get ordered to series, this could be Michael Cudlitz's third big leading role, following AMC's The Walking Dead and TNT's Southland. Getting into network TV would be a huge boost for the actor's post-Dead career, and showing off his comedic talents could lead to other non-typecast roles in the future. For the record, Cudlitz did have another comedy pilot set up at ABC last year, titled The Trustee, in which he would have co-starred with Orange is the New Black's Laverne Cox and Hawaii Five-0's Meaghan Rath. The network passed on it, though, paving Cudlitz's way to this new gig.

Tim Doyle certainly doesn't have any guarantees locked in with ABC, considering the network surprisingly cancelled the Tim Allen-starring Last Man Standing in the face of decent ratings and a public outcry, but he's got a long career in TV comedy that gives him an edge. Especially with the star power of Michael Cudlitz now part of the package. Doyle has been a part of the writing and production teams for shows such as Roseanne, Better Off Ted, The Big Bang Theory, Dinosaurs and Sports Night, among many more. Here's hoping all the best parts of the shows he's worked on will shine through with this ten-member family.

As the new show is currently in development, it's not clear when we'll hear more updates from Tim Doyle's upcoming ABC pilot, but we're hoping it's a great match for Michael Cudlitz. While waiting to hear more, check out our midseason premiere schedule for all the shows we know are coming soon.

There are few TV shows quite as popular as The Walking Dead. AMC's apocalyptic drama is currently in the midst of its whopping eighth season on the air, and is showing no signs of slowing anytime soon. With a crossover event on the way and its spinoff only gaining more popularity, it seems the zombie apocalypse could go on indefinitely. As such, we'll see plenty more major characters bite the dust as time goes by. Season 7 opened with the horrific death of Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) at the hands of Negan, bringing the ginger badass' story to an end. And now that Cudlitz is out of the woods, he can philosophize about the show. Specifically, how it echoes the themes of acclaimed novel Lord of the Flies.

The Walking Dead certainly does seem to be a bit of a social experiment, and allegory about the human condition. If the power grids failed and an apocalyptic event happened, how would people respond? If the series and its spinoff are any indication, not well.

Michael Cudlitz' comments to News Breakfast show how much The Walking Dead cast truly internalizes and rationalizes the events of the series. Although fans might get frustrated or even fall off, the cast and crew seems to really love and cherish the massively popular series. And while casual audiences may just see jump scares and action sequences, hardcore fans will know that the series also focuses on humanity, family, and perseverance.

The Walking Dead alum's comparison to Lord of the Flies feels especially significant during the events of the past two seasons. While we thought the group was safe inside the walls of Alexandria, it turns out that area in Virginia had a myriad of communities. All the groups are under the thumb of Negan and The Saviors, and the latest drama is watching how the different parties unite in an attempt for freedom. These first meetings in Season 7 were very much a lesson in human behavior, as slowly the layers of distrust and shame were pulled back for characters like Rick, Ezekiel, and Dwight.

Now the big question is whether the events of The Walking Dead will end up like they did in William Golding's award winning novel. Lord of the Flies' terror stops when an adult enters the picture, and the boys are finally able to self reflect. If TWD is going that route, then perhaps there's a way that Negan and Rick could find an uneasy alliance after all. We'll just have to wait and see.

The Walking Dead will return to AMC on February 25th. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch, and our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the chop last year.

The Walking Dead universe has enough love for Michael Cudlitz's portrayal of Abraham that they seem to want to see more, so its no surprise the actor was able to beat out a former pro wrestler who was told the role was his back in the day. Former WWE Superstar and TNA Impact wrestler Matt Morgan shared the story of how he almost played the character, and how the role was taken from him in what seemed all but a sure thing:

Understandably, Matt Morgan was a little miffed that he ignored family during the holidays to prep for a role he didn't get. While Morgan tells Wrestlinginc the role was "all but his," that might have just been his interpretation and the casting agents were on a completely different page. That said, he got far enough in the process to be reviewing The Walking Dead's scripts, so perhaps it really was an instance where the carpet was pulled out from under him.

As far as appearances go, the difference between Michael Cudlitz and Matt Morgan is fairly noticeable. Morgan has a billed height of 7 feet tall, and even if that isn't his actual height, he's still over a head taller than Cudlitz is at 6'2. What he lacks in size, however, Cudlitz made up for with a much larger acting pedigree. As for Morgan, he has five acting credits on his Wikipedia, and two of them are American Gladiator and Family Feud.

Matt Morgan apparently took the sleight rather hard and has reportedly not watched The Walking Dead since they denied him the role. While he didn't get to be on one of America's greatest shows of our generation, he did get to tag team with real-life behemoth of WWE and former UFC champion Brock Lesnar, so that's something. That said, Michael Cudlitz can also hang his hat on a wrestling achievement as well, as he was an honorary guest of Monday Night RAW back in July of 2015 and met his doppelganger Sheamus:

Another all-new, Abraham-free episode of The Walking Dead airs November 5th at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For more on the series, read about the Season 1 character the show just brought back, or another well-known actor who was overlooked for a popular character on TWD.

For other fall premieres and where to find them, visit our fall premiere guide.

Spoilers below for the extended season finale for Fear the Walking Dead Season 3, so be warned.

After years of claiming that the two shows' differing timelines meant a crossover episode might never come for The Walking Dead and its companion series Fear the Walking Dead, fans were recently pretty shocked when it was confirmed that such a crossover is indeed on the way. And while it wasn't initially made clear which character or characters would be involved, tonight's Season 3 finale for Fear the Walking Dead gave viewers a huge clue that Michael Cudlitz's Abraham Ford will be the first franchise character to appear in both shows.

What was the big clue, you ask? Well, assuming all goes according to the plans that were first mentioned by the new-ish villain Proctor John (played by Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy vet Ray McKinnon), the motorcycle club leader and his squad have a post-dam-takeover plan to head into Texas to head into "what's left of Houston." It's not entirely clear if that will still be the case for those who survived (basically just Madison, at this point), considering everything that went down at the end of the finale, but there's no way the episode would city-drop Houston -- especially since Proctor John got specific after only first mentioning Texas.

Houston is important, of course, because that was established as the pre-apocalypse hometown for Abraham, and he assumedly lived there for the bulk of his life that wasn't devoted to whatever military tours he went on. And fans know that Abraham went through some terrible times before he tagged along with Eugene (under the belief that Eugene was in contact with the government). While Abraham and his family survived for a short amount of time after the shit hit the fan, his wife was raped by one of the other survivors they were holed up with, and Abraham rage-killed that rapist and others, which scared off his wife and children. He later found their walker-chomped bodies, which is what led to his suicide attempt.

But because this universe is what it is, it's hard to pinpoint exactly where Fear the Walking Dead's current timeline matches up with The Walking Dead's as far as what would be happening in Abraham's life. Could we see him with his family in mildly happier times? Will Fear characters run into both Abraham and Eugene elsewhere in Texas during the duo's trek? There's also no telling how big of a crossover moment we'll get, but we're hoping for something big.

It would be one thing if this episode moment was the only thing that we had going for us as far as clues go, but Michael Cudlitz himself ignited the Abraham rumors with a mildly cryptic social media post that went up in the aftermath of the crossover announcement at New York Comic-Con. So there's always a chance that it won't be Abraham in the crossover, but our confidence and optimism are pretty high. Especially since Cudlitz already made a post-death return in the Walking Dead's Season 7 finale. When I'd spoken with the actor relatively recently, I'd inquired about a future return for Season 8, and looking at his answer now, it's possible he knew about the crossover installment at the time.

Now that Fear the Walking Dead Season 3 is complete on AMC, fans get to anticipate Season 4, which will be the first set of episodes with the new showrunners replacing Dave Erickson. But in the meantime, we've got Season 8 of The Walking Dead to get pumped about. Check out what producer Gale Anne Hurd told us about it, and then head to our fall TV premiere schedule to see everything coming to the small screen in the near future.

This past weekend was an exciting one for avid TV and film fans, as New York Comic-Con brought plenty of exciting actors and creatives from popular properties. In their respective panels, there was a ton of new footage and information shared, and The Walking Dead franchise was no exception. Because in addition to sharing a new scene from Season 8, a major announcement happened that has the potential to change the massively popular apocalyptic drama. The Walking Dead and it's spinoff Fear The Walking Dead will soon cross over in the form of a shared character, and now one fan favorite actor may be teasing his involvement.

Actor Michael Cudlitz played Abraham Ford since Season 4 of The Walking Dead, and quickly became a fan favorite for his character's dirty mouth and badassery. Now Cudlitz seems to be teasing the fandom regarding the crossover event. Before the news broke at NY Comic-Con, he tweeted this cryptic message to his Twitter followers.

Many smart Walking Dead fans predicted that the crossover announcement could be coming, and they were right. And the morning after the big announcement happened, Michael Cudlitz once again took to his Twitter with another mysterious message.

While these Tweets may just be Michael Cudlitz's way of engaging with the rabid fanbase of The Walking Dead, there does seem to be something fishy about his comments. He followed up both Tweets with the same fist Emojis, which seems to confirm that he's eager to jump back into the world of the zombie apocalypse, possibly with a future appearance on Fear The Walking Dead.

Michael Cudlitz's tweets are far from a confirmation of his involvement in the crossover, but they're certainly something to pay attention to. Since Abraham was killed off at the start o Season 7, it would stand to reason that Cudlitz should no longer be privy to the inner workings of the AMC shows. But he seems to have been given a heads up on the announcement, which will only adds fuel to the fire that Abraham could once again show up in The Walking Dead universe. After all, he told us that he'd be more than happy to return in any capacity.

As far as Abraham's journey on The Walking Dead goes, it's totally possible that interacted with Fear The Walking Dead's Madison Clarke and her group of survivors before he eventually ran into Glenn and Tara on the road to D.C.. In a flashback, it was shown that Abraham started his journey in the apocalypse in Houston, Texas. He eventually met Eugene, believes Eugene's lie, and begins assembling a team to escort the mulleted survivor to Washington. If Madison and her group move from California to somewhere closer to Texas, than it would stand to reason that Abraham's path (and maybe even Eugene and Rosita) might cross with Fear's protagonists.

Of course, we'll just have to wait for the folks at AMC to provide more information about the impending crossover event. But considering The Walking Dead is starting Season 8 and Fear's next season will be the fourth, the crossover has been years in the making.

Fear The Walking Dead will air its Season 3 finale this coming Sunday, and The Walking Dead will return for Season 8 on October 22nd. In the meantime, check out our fall premiere list to plan your next binge watch.

The Walking Dead's Season 7 finale gave fans plenty of surprises, as well as some four-legged mayhem, and Abraham's big return offered some of the more pleasant moments during Sasha's major sacrifice. CinemaBlend spoke with Michael Cudlitz about the recently released Season 7 Blu-ray set, and I asked him what he thought about the possibility of Abraham showing up again for a similar set of memory-driven flashbacks with Eugene, potentially giving the troubled character some key insight into his currently dour situation in the Sanctuary. Here's what the actor said:

The Walking Dead has definitely offered up a ton of flashbacks over the years, and in a bunch of different ways. We wouldn't even know how Rick first ended up in the hospital without them, or how Morgan reached his period of inner peace. But there was definitely something different and refreshing about the way that Abraham came back in the most recent finale, as those scenes weren't the objective views of the past that we're used to seeing. (Here's what Cudlitz told us about those flashbacks.)

By making it a more personal and perhaps imperfect representation of earlier events, a new avenue opened up for ways The Walking Dead can flirt with the past and call back to happier times between characters both alive and gone. And while everybody in Team Family could use a dose of good vibes from earlier days, I think few would argue that Eugene is in the most damaging headspace right now, working for Negan and living the not-as-terrible-as-others life within The Sanctuary. And Cudlitz is right in saying that fans would love to see some more from the time before Abraham and Eugene met up with Team Family.

Fans' reactions to the Eugene's actions have unfortunately bled into the real world, with actor Josh McDermitt's personal life affected, and though I'm not saying that's a reason for showrunner Scott Gimple to flip Eugene back to the good side, I am saying that the mullet-donning brainiac could use some advice from the redheaded behemoth that saved his life time and and again.

Of course, it would take a lot more than just "it makes sense" and "Michael Cudlitz would do it" to get Scott Gimple to come to the decision that Abraham deserves another post-bludgeoning return to The Walking Dead. After all, he wasn't the only person to get murdered by Negan in Season 7, and as the actor hinted at, there's someone else that could sensibly make an initial return before audiences would get a second comeback from Abraham.

We know that Season 8 will reference Glenn and his death in some way -- and we'll wager it has everything to do with Maggie and their unborn child -- but that obviously doesn't mean he'll actually show up in person. We can hope, of course, but it won't necessarily do any good. And while we're at it, though, I think it'd be amazing if the show was able to work in a flashback to the earliest days of The Walking Dead, so that former stars like Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey DuMunn, Laurie Holden and Sarah Wayne Callies could also return. (The latter actress did tell me she would be down for a return.)

If you're wanting to dive back into that crazy finale, The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season Blu-rays can set you up wonderfully, and you'll get to learn some interesting new info as well, thanks to the commentary tracks from cast and crew. (That goes for other episodes beyond the finale, too.) There are also tons of featurettes to dig into, covering the expanded locations in Season 7, the badass females on the show, the comic book, the writers and much more.

While it's unknown when or if Abraham will ever find a spot again in the world of The Walking Dead, we do know that Season 8 will be hit AMC on Sunday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see when everything else is hitting the small screen in the near future, head to our fall TV premiere guide.

Just as it went for its crazy premiere, The Walking Dead's Season 7 finale was filled with big emotional surprises, and I think we can all agree that Sasha's vengeance-minded suicide was the biggest kicker. Making her decision all the more heartbreaking were Sasha's quasi-memories where Michael Cudlitz's Abraham unexpectedly returned to the show. CinemaBlend spoke with with actor ahead of The Walking Dead's Season 7 Blu-ray release on August 22, and when I asked if he approached the scenes as if they'd definitely happened in the past, here's what he told me:

That certainly makes a lot of sense as far as handling those performances, since Sasha and Abraham's finale scenes weren't introduced to viewers as truly objective flashbacks. For example, the way that Season 6 went back and forth in its timeline, flipping from black-and-white to color, was clearly meant to show audiences exactly how events played out, as it incorporated the entire population of survivors, rather than just being tethered to a select few. Those scenes in the Season 7 finale, on the other hand, were purposefully experienced through Sasha's point of view as she took her coffin-bound journey back to Alexandria, thus making their legitimacy all the more mysterious.

Especially considering those scenes showcased moments that were seemingly "just right" for where Sasha's headspace was during that journey. She's pulling up romance moments, where she and Abraham are lip-locked and embracing, and she's hearing Abraham talk about why they do the things they do to help others out. Basically, she's justifying her self-sabotaging actions, and in times of need like that, a touched-up memory can obviously be more effective than the real thing. Not that I'm saying The Walking Dead was purposefully having Sasha misremember things to match up with her thought processes, since any detail changes could have obviously been explained away by the fallacy of human recollection.

So while Sasha and Abraham possibly didn't experience every single thing that happened during her memory jaunts in The Walking Dead's finale, at least we now know (maybe) that we weren't watching Sasha completely fabricating past moments for any reason.

While we're waiting for Season 8 to get here, The Walking Dead Season 7 still has much to offer fans through the feature-filled Blu-ray and DVD sets that are releasing on Tuesday, August 22. Viewers will get to see more from the season through deleted scenes and alternate takes, as well as a treasure trove of features that delve into the making of Season 7, Negan's impact on the narrative, the ass-kicking female characters, the bucket-kicking dead characters and a lot more. As always, some of the most interesting info comes from the episode commentaries from the cast and crew, where we learned the meaning behind Daryl's Sanctuary jumpsuit, as well as a fun fact about Rick's fantasy flash-forward in the premiere.

Check out an exclusive clip from that Season 7 Blu-ray, and then set your calendars for Sunday, October 22, as that's when The Walking Dead will hit AMC in its usual 9:00 p.m. ET time slot. For everything else hitting the small screen soon, head to our summer premiere schedule and our fall TV schedule.

The last season of The Walking Dead continues to up the intensity. If you are looking to add season seven to your dvd or blu-ray collection, you can check that out here.

Though The Walking Dead's globe-spanning fanbase is dead-set on the arrival of Season 8 in October, let no one forget that Season 7 still has some interesting details to offer, even though it ended months ago. The feature-filled Season 7 Blu-ray set is releasing soon, and understandably, the brutal season premiere gets its share of attention. But it's not necessarily the skull-crushing deaths that provided the most interesting and heartbreaking piece of info, but rather Rick's fully imagined flash-forward. In the episode's commentary track, star Michael Cudlitz fully confirms assumptions that Sasha was indeed meant to be eating for two in the brief scene.

Just the way he worded that made me stomach go all wobbly. "A future where Sasha and Abraham could do that." No need for him to even go into any speculative details about the hows and the whys about Sasha having Abraham's child, since that scenario was so far beyond the realm of possibility. By the point when Rick is having that hopeful faux-premonition in the episode, the only thing Abraham was capable of achieving was rigor mortis. The best surgeons, magicians and warlocks couldn't have given Abraham a second chance at blinking again, much less getting someone pregnant.

And it turns out the episode was originally intended to give audiences an even large look into this non-future, though the moments that were filmed weren't used within the show itself. (The scene did get added to the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray, thankfully.) Here's what showrunner Scott Gimple said about it during the same commentary track.

The scene as it was in the episode was definitely a lovely touch, as seeing Glenn holding an iteration of a child he'd never know was heartbreaking in and of itself. The extended take gives us even more of Glenn and Baby Rhee, and it also took Abraham and Sasha away from the picnic table, where it's far more obvious that Sasha is glowing with pregnancy. I almost wish this big would have been included for that reason, since it gave us one of Abraham and Sasha's last happy moments together, even if it wasn't real.

And I don't know about you guys, but for me, that dinner scene (and the unaired bits) take on even more emotional heft in the aftermath of Season 7 as a whole. Back when fans were murmuring about Sasha's baby bump in the premiere, there was some speculation that this may have been a nod to Sasha actually being pregnant, or becoming pregnant later on. That clearly wasn't the case, as Sasha made quite the impossible choice at the end of Season 7 to sacrifice herself in an effort to take Negan down. At least, I really hope that wasn't the case over the course of the rest of the season.

The Walking Dead's Season 7 Blu-ray set will be released everywhere on Tuesday, August 22. Beyond all 16 episodes from the season, the set has the expected assortment of extras to keep fans busy, including 9 different featurettes that range from behind-the-scenes looks at the season to an "In Memoriam" extra to ones focused specifically on gross walkers, badass female characters, and the big, new locations that were introduced. Further, there are a selection of deleted and alternate scenes, as well as audio commentaries with different members of the cast and crew. (Those last two were kind of obvious, given the nature of this story.)

After everyone is finished catching back up with everything Negan destroyed in Season 7, don't forget to mark your calendars for The Walking Dead's action-centric Season 8 premiere, notably its 100th episode, which will hit AMC on Sunday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. And for everything else hitting primetime before and after that date, check out our summer premiere schedule and our fall TV schedule.

2016 was an extremely deadly year for major TV characters, and The Walking Dead was definitely the home of a handful of those fatalities. The Season 7 premiere served as a broader introduction to Jeffrey Dean Morgan's antagonist Negan, and it also served as a stomach-churning outro-duction for Steven Yeun's Glenn and Michael Cudlitz's Abraham. The latter was the first to feel the skull-crunching force of Lucille, and when asked what went through Abraham's mind during those final moments, Cudlitz offered up a rather touching answer.

Michael Cudlitz gave his explanation during an interview for Skybound Insider, where he sat alongside comic book creator Robert Kirkman, and it's an answer that makes a hell of a lot of sense, considering where the character's head was at during much of Season 6. Upon shifting his romantic interests from Rosita to Sasha, Abraham seemed to be shifting from good-time puppy love to something deeper, which gave him cause to tap into his emotional core, as evidenced in part by him talking about starting a family. And while a focus on those kinds of personal thoughts seemed to doom Abraham just by Walking Dead logic, perhaps he was foreshadowing his death in a different way.

Many TV shows give certain characters a plot-based boost of character development just as they're about to get killed off the show, and Abraham definitely got some of that, but there may have been a deeper meaning there. (And really, Glenn was fake-killed prior to his legitimate death, so there are exceptions for all rules.) By mentally accepting that he might be ready for a family and new leash on life, Abraham was really understanding and re-embracing his former role as a father and protector. And a true protector doesn't play favorites, so this was indeed the mindset he needed to grasp onto in order to be able to look up at Negan with such conviction and bravado, with death just seconds away.

And it really did only take about a minute or two of watching Negan first big scene to prove that this was not a cat who wavered in the face of dissension, so once Abraham realized that it was his number being called, there wasn't much room inside of him left for protest. Well, for a form of protest that didn't involve telling Negan to suck his nuts, anyway. Speaking of, I guess it's saying something that Abraham wasn't thinking about something of a more sexual nature as his last thought, though I suppose it's hard to get aroused when one's head is about to be turned into mulch.

We won't be seeing Abraham when Season 8 comes around, even though we DID see him in the Season 7 finale, thanks to Sasha's daydreams. But a lot more mayhem and excitement will be there, and it'll hit AMC at some point in October. In the meantime, check out our summer TV schedule to see what shows are hitting primetime in the coming months.

The Walking Dead got off to a very bloody start in Season 7 when new bad guy Negan beat Abraham to death with a baseball bat in front of all his friends. Eugene in particular seemed positively traumatized by what happened to the man who had guided and (mostly) protected him in the zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately, he wasn't so traumatized by Negan's actions that he would stand up to him. When taken captive by the Saviors, Eugene lasted all of a single episode before joining the "I'm Negan" rabble at the Sanctuary. Michael Cudlitz played Abraham over the years on The Walking Dead, and he weighed in on Eugene's betrayal, saying this:

Despite the fact that Eugene has relatively limited survival skills in the zombie apocalypse, he's a pretty consummate survivor by this point. He has mastered the art of latching on to the biggest and most powerful person who could possibly protect him, no matter who he betrays and what the long-term consequences may be. He's not a leader or a fighter, but he's intelligent, and that has helped him make the right kind of alliances so far. Michael Cudlitz' comments at the recent Walker Stalker Con (via ComicBook.com) that Abraham wouldn't be surprised that Eugene is sticking with whoever will keep him alive for the time being don't reflect well on Eugene, but they definitely make sense with what we know of him.

Josh McDermitt plays Eugene, and he was also present at Walker Stalker Con to share his thoughts on how Abraham might react to Eugene's betrayal:

Despite the quite severe beatdown Abraham dealt Eugene in Season 5 after discovering that Eugene's claims about having the know-how to save the planet were false, Eugene has stuck by Abraham, and Josh McDermitt evidently believes that Eugene would not have gone full "I'm Negan" if Abraham was still around to look after him. Abraham's death left Eugene feeling unsafe, so Eugene latched onto the next powerful figure for protection; sadly, that powerful figure also happened to be the person who so violently murdered Abraham. He might not have been surprised by Eugene's turn, but I can't imagine that he'd be happy about it.

It should be interesting to see how Eugene deals with the events of the Season 7 finale. His former pals at Alexandria seem to have pretty much washed their hands of him after his betrayal, and he may not benefit from Negan's protection for much longer. Alexandria joined forces with Hilltop and the Kingdom (with Shiva!) to battle the Saviors, and they put up a good showing. Even if Negan still has major advantages on Rick and Co., some of the power may shift away from him and onto Rick moving forward.

We do know that the battle in the Season 7 finale didn't quite finish things up, however. Three actors whose characters hail from different factions have all been bumped up from recurring to regular gigs, and showrunner Scott Gimple has teased some fast-paced narrative changes when the series returns for Season 8. We'll have to wait and see what happens next.

Unfortunately, we'll be waiting a while. The Walking Dead isn't due to return to AMC until October, but you can check out our breakdown of what we know so far about Season 8 for a peek ahead, and be sure to take a look at our midseason TV premiere guide and our summer TV premiere schedule to discover your viewing options in the meantime.

Warning: spoilers ahead if you haven't already caught the Walking Dead Season 7 finale.

The Walking Dead really isn't a show that frequently finds ways to bring actors back after their characters have been written off, mostly because characters are usually only written off because they've died some kind of horrifying death. Luckily for Abraham fans, the Season 7 finale was the perfect time for Michael Cudlitz to return to the series one last time. He reprised the role of Abraham for scenes set back before he was beaten to death by by Negan, and we got to see him with Sasha. Cudlitz had this to say about his return to The Walking Dead:

Michael Cudlitz shared his thoughts on returning to The Walking Dead during a surprise appearance on Talking Dead, and it was pretty easy to believe him when he said that he had a wonderful time filming one last time with Sonequa Martin-Green as Abraham and Sasha. In fact, their bond as actors was apparent during The Talking Dead. Host Chris Hardwick began to play what looked like a recording of Michael Cudlitz sending Sonequa Martin-Green his well wishes from afar, but the video didn't seem to work. Martin-Green took the malfunction in stride... until Cudlitz strolled out with a bouquet of flowers and a hug to surprise her.

Adorable things rarely happen on Talking Dead, but I will admit to letting out an "Aw!" when Michael Cudlitz surprised Sonequa Martin-Green. I definitely don't blame her for getting a little teary at his unexpected appearance and flowers. Well played, Michael Cudlitz. Well played.

It was actually somewhat difficult at first to understand the sequence of Abraham's scenes in the Season 7 finale. There seemed to be a dream sequence inside of a dream sequence that may or may not have involved a hallucination, all from the mind of the dying Sasha. Still, even before we found out that Sasha had poisoned herself and was waiting to die in Negan's coffin, the scenes between Abraham and Sasha were profoundly impactful. Her arc through Season 7 has been about two things: protecting Maggie and avenging Abraham, and we finally got to see why Sasha was so dedicated to protecting Maggie.

I'll admit that I was never a fan of the Abraham/Sasha romance, but I thought their scenes in the Season 7 finale were exactly what were needed to finish Sasha's story on the series. Yes, she died and it was very tragic, but her death was one final "Screw you!" to Negan and the Saviors, and I think Abraham would be proud of her for having the nerve to go as far as she did. If only both of them could have lived long enough to see Shiva in action. I can practically already hear the one-liners Abraham would drop at the sight of Shiva shredding Saviors. Alas.

The Walking Dead will return to the airwaves in October, although sadly without either Michael Cudlitz or Sonequa Martin-Green (who will be elsewhere on the small screen with an awesome new role). Check out our midseason TV premiere guide and our summer TV premiere schedule for a look at all your viewing options between now and Season 8. Don't forget to take a gander at our breakdown of all the big questions we still have after the Walking Dead Season 7 finale.

For years, Michael Cudlitz was one of TV's most intimidating protagonists as The Walking Dead's cigar-chomping survivor Abraham Ford, but that reign came to an end last year in an episode that put the AMC drama in an endless stream of conversations. Now, the veteran actor may have found his next big break in a surprising place, as Cudlitz has signed on for what would be his very first regular role in a TV comedy, and it's for the ABC pilot The Trustee.

Michael Cudlitz definitely drew a lot of laughs on The Walking Dead - particularly in his last line to Negan - and he could make a big splash by finally jumping from drama to comedy full-time. The premise for The Trustee centers on a police department where Detective Eliza Radley, played by Being Human's Meaghan Rath, finds her stubborn dedication balanced by an attention-grabbing ex-con who is doing odd jobs around the precinct to serve out the final chunk of her prison sentence. Opposites attract, so says Paula Abdul's feline friend, and the women's contrasting viewpoints are the basis for a lively companionship.

If you can stand it, Michael Cudlitz's character will go by the name of Timothy Waits, though I doubt anyone will be calling him Timothy on the reg, as he's the captain of the police department. He won't be a generic hardnosed douche, either, with TVLine describing him as "sardonic and wry," saying he takes kindly to the odd ways in which Radley gets her police work done. It's definitely easy to picture Cudlitz as a big boss, and I'm hoping he gets to show off some wit. As well as the same mustache that Abraham rocked.

While comedy isn't something Michael Cudlitz gets into that often, he knows a thing or two about starring in cop-driven series, as his big pre-Walking Dead fame came from his lead role on the acclaimed TNT drama Southland (which ended strangely). He also played an FBI special agent in the short-lived Standoff, a cop on CSI, a detective on Lost, a corrections officer on Prison Break, and then some. Not to mention all of his military roles. But having said all that, his first actual post-Walking Dead role was in the TBS comedy Kings of Con. He must have liked the vibe.

The Trustee was created by writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn, whose careers started off on the small screen in a great way as writers on the ABC comedy Spin City, but a lot of their pilots have gone nowhere over the years. They've had a lot more work on the feature side, though it's with movies like the notoriously awful Norbit, Zookeeper and the first two Smurfs movies. Hopefully The Trustee stands up as much as...mainly just Spin City.

Just in the pilot stages, The Trustee will go through more casting before filming, so we'll be waiting a while to hear about its eventual fate. In the meantime, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what's coming to your TVs in the coming months.

Season 7 of AMC's The Walking Dead has been quite the doozy. The apocalyptic drama started its season in the most gruesome way possible- with both Abraham and Glenn being brutally murdered at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan. Most actors working on The Walking Dead know that their job will likely come to an unexpected and bloody end, as main character are constantly killed off in order to keep the plot somewhat plausible. But these announcements often come as a big surprise, like with alumnus Emily Kinney. Although now it appears that Abraham himself actually got the news a bit early.

Actor Michael Cudlitz, who played Abraham Ford on The Walking Dead since Season 4, appeared this weekend on the Walker Stalker Cruise- a 3 day vacation which features TWD cast and crew doing various Q&A's. During one such event, Cudlitz revealed how he learned Abraham was going to bite the dust (via Comic Book),

Sometimes all it takes is a phone call with the right person to put things in perspective. And given that Michael Cudlitz had already been promoted to a series regular, there weren't a lot of reasons for meeting with Scott Gimple alone. Abraham was shit out of luck.

It also makes sense that Michael Cudlitz perhaps saw Abraham's death coming, considering where the character was going on the show. Last season saw Abraham developing strong feelings for Sasha, and breaking up with Rosita in order to truly live each day to the his full potential. And as he and Sasha continued to get closer, Abraham also took a special interest in Glenn and Maggie's baby. During the Season 6 finale Abraham and Sasha decided to try having one of their own, and he finally made up with Eugene. This all spelled disaster for Abraham, which is why many (myself included) had predicted he was going to die during in the Season 7 premiere.

Additionally, Abraham's comic book death was recycled to shockingly kill Denise on the TV series. Considering that Abraham had already ran his comic book course through the AMC drama, it makes sense that they'd let him go in order to introduce new characters. After all, how much more could everyone's favorite ginger really continue to change?

But just because Abraham died doesn't mean we'll never see him return to The Walking Dead. New rumors reported that Abe might be able to return this season through the use of flashbacks or dream sequences. While surprising, this isn't exactly unprecedented on the series. Lori came back in weird vision to Rick in the prison, and Tyrese's death saw the return of Beth, Lizzie, Mika through his hallucinations.

The Walking Dead returns this Sunday, February 12th on AMC.

Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's Season 7 premiere.

If you were like a giant section of the TV-viewing public on Sunday night, then you were probably tuned into The Walking Dead on AMC for its body-dropping Season 7 premiere. By the time the episode was through, so much of the anticipation had turned to acid in fans' stomachs, with both Glenn and Abraham getting bashed on the head by Negan's Lucille. Thankfully, their brutal deaths on the AMC drama do not extend to the careers of actors STeven Yeun and Michael Cudlitz, and here's what the actors are up to now.

Steven Yeun is definitely the one with more upcoming gigs lined up. Now that the actor is finished wooing Maggie and saving people on the set of The Walking Dead, he will continue to build up his badassery cred with a handful of potentially excellent projects. He's only got one TV show on the horizon, but that's okay when it's got filmmaker Guillermo del Toro behind it. Yeun is lending his vocal talents to the upcoming animated fantasy series Trollhunters along with Ron Perlman, Kelsey Grammer and the late Anton Yelchin. That series will debut on the streaming service on December 23.

On the feature side, Steven Yeun has been quite busy in the time that he didn't spend filming more Walking Dead episodes. Arguably the most exciting of the projects is Bong Joon-ho's next presumed masterpiece Okja, a monster pig drama that also stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton; the Netflix-produced film has yet to receive a specific release date. Yeun is also set to kick some ass in the next film from Everly's Joe Lynch, Mayhem, which also has yet to get a release date. In that flick, Yeun plays an office exec who is wrongfully terminated on the same day a crazy virus breaks out in the office building. And finally, Yeun is part of another exciting comic book project, as he's voicing the lead role of Detective Tony Chu in the adaptation of Image's fantastic series Chew from John Layman and Rob Guillory.

Strangely enough, TV vet Michael Cudlitz hasn't gone public with any major announcements about new acting projects to come after The Walking Dead, despite the fact that he's known he'd throw up his final deuces for well over a year now. The former Southland standout did appear on a pair of House of Lies episodes in 2016, so it's not as if he's been resting on his laurels. As well, his Ballers character Dan Balsamo is still technically considered a recurring one, so it's possibly he could reprise that enjoyable role on the HBO comedy when Season 3 kicks up again next June. Fingers crossed more roles are coming his way soon.

With this pair of talented actors no longer heavily involved with the show, if at all, The Walking Dead will move beyond these tragedies when Season 7 airs Sunday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m. To see what else you can find on the small screen later this year, check out our fall TV schedule.

Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead kicked off its seventh season with an episode that few of us would probably describe as beautiful, as new bad guy Negan brutally beat two of the good guys to death with his baseball bat. Abraham was the unlucky soul who won Negan's twisted game of "eeny meeny miney moe," and he was the first Alexandrian to meet Lucille face-to-face. He got off one last defiant one-liner, but he also snuck in a rather lovely gesture to Sasha that viewers may have overlooked. Check it out:

Despite landing two love interests in the span of only a couple of seasons, Abraham was never the most romantic character on The Walking Dead. Unlike Glenn, he didn't use his final sentence to make a heartbreaking promise to his lady love, so fans of the Abraham/Sasha romance may have felt like the duo didn't get a fitting farewell. They may not have been a couple for very long, but their connection in Season 6 was important for both of their character arcs, and so the small peace sign that Abraham made before getting the first whack of Negan's bat was a callback to some of his and Sasha's happier times as a twosome, and it gives a certain degree of closure that would be otherwise absent.

This wasn't an easy gesture to spot, especially for those of us who were too focused on the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire to pay any attention to Abraham's fingers. According to Michael Cudlitz, the peace sign was deliberately kept subtle. Cudlitz explained his mindset going into Abraham's decision to make the peace sign in his final moments, saying this:

Well, no wonder Sasha started crying before Negan took the first swing! I'm a little sniffly myself, and I didn't even particularly like Abraham and Sasha's romance. He had a matter of seconds between the realization that Negan would be playing tee ball with his head and the first swing, and he used them to give one last sign of farewell to Sasha. Michael Cudlitz's reveal to Vulture puts a whole new spin on Abraham's death scene.

Glenn was obviously the bigger character of the two to bite the dust in the Season 7 premiere; he'd been around from the very beginning, whereas Abraham only turned up in Season 4. It made sense that Glenn would get the grander exit, but I'm still glad that Abraham got more in his last scene than just a brutish one-liner. He said the best goodbye he could in a very limited window.

Tune in to AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET to see what's next for Sasha now that she's lost Abraham on The Walking Dead.

As the summer months come to a close and the fall begins, there's one major thing to look forward to: new TV. Sure, premium networks like HBO have great summer programming, but by and large the season is usually pretty dry in regards to your favorite small screen adventures. And perhaps the most exciting fall premiere of the season will be AMC's The Walking Dead. With insane numbers in regards to overall viewership, the apocalyptic drama ended its sixth season with a major cliffhanger- leaving the audience to wonder which character from our scrappy group of survivors was brutally killed at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan. Since the finale aired in April, TWD fans have been theorizing which one of our faves bit the dust, and now it appears that one actor in question may have spilled the beans regarding his character's fate.

Michael Cudlitz, who plays everyone's favorite swearing ginger Abraham, recently spoke to Pop Sugar about the death of one of the supporting characters. Denise died last season in the exact way Abraham did in the comics, leading many to wonder if Abe would be safe for a while. When speaking about Denise's death he said the following:

Woah. This really makes it seem like Abraham is safe from Lucille's wrath. But after doing so much press about the upcoming seventh season, it seems uncharacteristic that Michael Cudlitz would slip like this. Let's think about both options.

It's entirely possible thatMichael Cudlitz got caught up with his interview, and accidentally let it slip that Negan and Abraham would be living in the same world. Since the two characters only came face to face in the final moments of the season, it would stand to reason that Abraham would need to survive the harrowing game of "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" so that their relationship could be fleshed out in future episodes.

Then again, Michael Cudlitz could just be messing with us and attempting to throw us off the the real truth: Abraham is dead AF. I've always personally thought the victim was either Abraham or Glenn, as their deaths would trigger a ripple through so many of the show's supporting characters. I'd love to see what Abraham's death affects Rosita and Sasha, and what their respective mourning means to each other. Plus, who doesn't want to see Eugene ugly cry again?

The Walking Dead will return to AMC on October 23.

Ever since last season's finale episode "Last Day on Earth" aired back in April, fans of The Walking Dead haven't stopped talking about the major cliffhanger that it ended on. As fans of the series know, the final moments of Season 6 saw Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan make his glorious and terrifying debut. With the majority of the main cast on their knees in front of him, Negan informed the group that he was now their boss, and would be killing one of them in order to send a message to the denizens of Alexandria. From there, a terrifying game of "eenie meenie miney mo" commenced, which concluded in him bashing the brains of a mystery character in.

Since then, fans of The Walking Dead have been desperately trying to figure out which character died in the finale. Now actor Michael Cudlitz, who plays everyone's favorite foul mouthed survivor Abraham, has spoken up regarding spoilers. And he didn't hold back, either.

How do you really feel, Abraham? This statement comes to us from an interview that Michael Cudlitz did with Yahoo. After having a good rapport with his interviewer, Cudlitz felt comfortable enough to get candid about spoilers. And he really has a point.

While most people think that actors merely rehearse and perform scenes for TV and film, the job actually has a ton of other responsibilities. One of these is press junkets and interviews, which help gain viewership for whichever project they're trying to advertise. And with a show as popular as The Walking Dead, this means that there are tons of people trying to get information out of actors with each appearance. This seems to be really wearing on Michael Cudlitz, especially because tons of interviews attempt to trick the actor into revealing who died at the hands of Negan.

It does seem a bit dirty to attempt this type of manipulation on an actor. If someone like Michael Cudlitz were to accidentally slip up and reveal who Negan killed, there would presumably be some pretty extreme consequences to be faced; he could possibly lose out on major money or even face termination, considering how popular The Walking Dead is.

But Michael Cudlitz also makes a great point: the whole point of suspenseful shows like The Walking Dead is to make the audience feel something. So any spoilers that might happen for the apocalyptic drama would really ruin the show, and nobody wants that.

The Walking Dead will return to our TV's on October 23, 2016 on AMC. Keep it here at Cinema Blend for all updates on the zombies, guts, and thrills.

It should go without saying that there are possible spoilers ahead for Season 6 of The Walking Dead. Then again, maybe they aren’t.

When a show has proven time and again that it has no problem killing off characters, rumors about potential character deaths are a way of fictional life. And it looks like actor Michael Cudlitz, who plays Abraham on the in-production The Walking Dead, may have spoiled the death of a character that sadly isn’t Father Gabriel. We’re talking about Eugene “I’m only lying when my mullet is showing” Porter.

Now, it’s clear that this could all be for naught, but Cudlitz’s reaction has us more suspicious than normal. Undead Walking posted a screenshot of the now-deleted tweet, which shows how Cudlitz reportedly responded to a tweet of Josh McDermitt, who plays Eugene, when McDermitt noted that he was off filming a movie.

And when fans started reacting to his comments as if they were indeed a sign of things to come on The Walking Dead in Season 6, Cudlitz hit the brakes instead of taking the time to explain himself. Here’s how he revised his post.

Now, maybe he just didn’t feel like explaining himself to a bunch of random Twitter users, and decided to avoid the topic completely by reneging on his words. But if that’s the case, then why isn’t McDermitt in Georgia taking part in the filming of Season 6? There are a bunch of reasons that could happen, from Eugene’s limited amount of scenes being completed to…something else. But it certainly seems suspicious. Now be warned, because comic spoilers are ahead.

So, in Robert Kirkman’s comic series, Eugene is actually still alive in current issues, while Abraham was killed a while back by one of Negan’s Saviors. We’re not expecting to see Negan for a while, so it’s not like the characters will be switched around; Eugene would just bite the bullet in an original fashion. It’s nothing new for Kirkman and showrunner Scott Gimple to shake up stories for audiences, and TV Eugene never really felt like a character who would live forever. So this wouldn’t surprise me if Cudlitz’s tweets ended up being indicative of Eugene’s demise.

Find out who will live and who will die when The Walking Dead returns to AMC this fall.

You deserve to get beaned in the head by a soup can if you don’t know there are SPOILERS below.

Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead was another semi-standalone episode focusing on the escapades of the group surrounding big badass Abraham and his “scientist” cohort Eugene. The episode ended with the barely surprising reveal that Eugene has been full of shit since day one, but that’s not the most interesting aspect of the episode. Apparently the Censorship Powers That Be almost kept “Self Help” (or at least part of it) from airing. At least, that’s the story told by star Michael Cudlitz, who plays the emotionally harrowed Abraham. Here’s how he put it on his Twitter page.

Ridiculous, right? Think back over the entire episode and try to pinpoint a scene that was “too something” to be put out there to TV audiences. Can you think of anything that completely shocked or disgusted you? Me either.

Perhaps it was the sex scene between Abraham and Rosita, though it was about as tame of a sex scene as one could imagine, shrouded in darkness and blankets. Surely the censors don’t think that consensual sex between loving partners is more dangerous to see than cannibals. I know this isn’t a show that ever gets very sexual, but cable TV has gotten pretty free with various forms of nudity, and none of that happened here. The only thing about this scene that was a tad off was Eugene hanging around and watching them do it, even though that’s also slightly consensual, despite being creepy. Is voyeurism really more risqué than blood and guts?

If not that, then what else? There were a few gory scenes here – particularly the one where Eugene destroyed a zombie squad with the firetruck hose – but it wasn’t any more revolting or excessive than anything we’ve seen this season, much less the past four years the show has been on the air. There was that one scene near the end where Abraham’s family was shown to be victims of a zombie attack, but there weren’t any real close-ups of dead children or anything. It was mostly implied and the impact was played out through the temporarily suicidal Abraham’s facial expressions.

Maybe it was almost censored by AMC for all the bullshit frame-cropping that happened for DirecTV users watching the episode. (Which was countered by AMC during one commercial break with the network saying that DirecTV’s claims were mostly phony.) What do you guys think the censors had a problem with?

In the early 2000s, Paul Walker was a rising star as the pretty face at the front of The Fast and The Furious. But since then—despite a role in the Oscar-nominated Flags of Our Fathers—Walker has been known for little else. And while there's some job security in the long-running franchise (number six is set to shoot soon), it appears Walker is constructing new opportunities to better display his range, producing and starring in the upcoming dark comedy Pawn Shop Chronicles.

Penned by Adam Minarovich, the film follows a man (presumably Walker) who goes in search of his kidnapped wife, and finds himself on a wild goose chase, crossing paths with skinheads, meth addicts and a mopey Elvis impersonator, all of which have ties to a local pawn shop. Right off the bat, this sounds like a crime caper in the vein of Guy Ritchie, but with screenwriter Minarovich penning pictures like Buy Sell Kill: A Flea Market Story and the dismemberment-centered horror-comedy Chop, I imagine Pawn Shop Chronicles will offer something slightly more unhinged than Snatch.

Wayne Kramer, who helmed critically heralded Vegas-set drama The Cooler, will direct, and could well prove a great guide in Walker's journey into the tricky terrain of dark comedy. Deadline reports that the actor-producer has likewise surrounded himself by a pretty strong supporting cast that includes Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Elijah Wood, Vincent D’Onofrio, Thomas Jane, Lukas Haas, Pell James (The Lincoln Lawyer), Chi McBride (Pushing Daisies), Ashlee Simpson (The Hot Chick), Kevin Rankin (Justified), DJ Qualls (Road Trip), Michael Cudlitz (Southland) and Norman Reedus (The Boondock Saints).

While there are some lackluster names in this mix, there are enough compelling performers here to make Pawn Shop Chronicles intriguing. Unfortunately, Mimran Schur Pictures isn't revealing details on whose playing who, and so in my head there's a befuddling slideshow of the men above getting their sullen Elvis on, complete with rhinestone-studded body suit, hip wiggles and a cockeyed frown. Well played, Mimran, well played.

Pawn Shop Chronicles is now shooting in Baton Rouge, La.