Fans of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic books know that not everything that happens in the AMC drama series is pulled from the source material. That appears to be the cast for this latest piece of casting news for the series' third season, which introduces a character that isn't from the comics, but apparently has close ties to the Governor.
EW shared the news today that Rubicon star Dallas Roberts is headed back to AMC, this time to play the role of Milton in The Walking Dead Season 3. Dallas' recent credits include a recurring role on The Good Wife.
EW says he's a completely new character who's one of the residents of the Governor-ruled community of Woodbury. Both Robert Kirkman and showrunner Glen Mazzara had interesting things to say about Milton, including that he's a "details guy" Kirkman describes Milton as "the guy that works with the Governor, who is monitoring all situations and is trying to help the Governor make sense of this world that they’re living in." This includes performing "little experiments" involving the walkers to study their behavior. That sounds both fascinating and dangerous! (Though no more dangerous than keeping a bunch of walkers locked up in your barn, so I suppose it's all relative).
Mazzara goes on to talk about people finding their usefulness in a zombie-occupied world, "We were examining, ‘How do people survive in this apocalyptic world, and what can people contribute?" It's certainly an interesting question to ask for a story like this, which focuses its attention on mankind's attempt to survive and find a life and future in a world where rotten corpses are stumbling around trying to eat you. It sounds like Dallas' character represents one of the people who serves a purpose other than walker-killing.
From what I know about the Governor, he's not exactly the nicest guy (that may be putting it mildly) and he'll pose some opposition to Rick and the other survivors. But from what Mazzara says of Dallas' character, Milton doesn't sound so bad. "He just adds a lot of heart and humanity to Woodbury, which further complicates what that is. That is a real town with real people and real survivors. It’s not necessarily a group of bad guys." I like that. It makes me think there will be a bit more complexity to the dynamic between Rick's people and the Woodbury people.
EW's article mentions that The Walking Dead will be featured on the cover of their upcoming issue, which hits stands later this week. So keep an eye on that and continue counting down to The Walking Dead Season 3, which premieres on AMC on October 14.
