A new cast member has been added to The Walking Dead, courtesy of a report from ComicBook.com. Hilarie Burton, the real-life spouse of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan, will be joining the show’s final run of episodes as his deceased wife, Lucille (to which his beloved baseball bat in barbed wire owes its namesake).
Toward the midpoint of Season 8, Negan makes reference to his wife, having died from an unexplained illness prior to the events of the show. So, bearing this in mind, Burton’s stint in the show will likely take the form of flashbacks. Burton has been slated to appear in only one of the six new episodes attached to the back half of Season 10, following October’s season finale, “A Certain Doom”.
Negan’s arrival was established back in the finale to Season 6, where we were introduced to his baseball bat in what’s arguably one of the show’s most brutal moments (save for Alpha in Season 9).
It was confirmed in September that The Walking Dead would be ending in 2022, with the show concluding with an extended 24-episode Season 11. But, as is the way with big franchises, this is not the end. A spin-off is in the works, starring Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl, and Melissa McBride, who plays Carol, and is due for sometime in 2023.
We’ve also got a trilogy of Rick Grimes films (eventually), an anthology series, Tales of the Walking Dead, the more recent The Walking Dead: World Beyond, and Fear The Walking Dead, currently on its sixth season, which began airing on AMC on October 11.
Chief Content Officer, Scott M. Gimple said that the show still has “a lot of thrilling story left to tell”, with a future “of more Walking Dead — brand new stories and characters, familiar faces and places, new voices and new mythologies.”
“This will be a grand finale that will lead to new premieres. Evolution is upon us. The Walking Dead lives.”
