Speaking on Talking Dead following last week’s mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead, veteran make-up maestro and mainstay director Greg Nicotero reflected on the late Scott Wilson’s final episode in the series, courtesy of a report from ComicBook.
“It wasn’t scripted that he was supposed to be in Andy’s last episode, but I wanted him to be there” Nicotero explained on the talk show. “The fact that we had Scott Wilson back, that makes me proud. There’s a constant reminder of how he was so important.”
“I went to see him in the hospital in Los Angeles, and I took my iPhone with the scene, and I showed it to him. He was like, ‘That brought tears to my eyes,'” Nicotero admitted. ”He was so proud. And then I kept trying to leave, and he kept making me show it to him over and over again.
According to Nicotero, Wilson watched his scene with Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes “like six times. He was so excited about it … I don’t even know how to express how grateful I was to be able to share that with him.”
Wilson played Hershel Greene from Seasons 2-4 before meeting his maker at the hands of the Governor and a particularly deadly katana. He reprised his role shortly before his death aged 76 during Season 9, appearing as a hallucination to Rick in Lincoln’s final episode. Wilson’s career includes roles in The Great Gatsby, In the Heat of the Night, and The Ninth Configuration.
Seasons 1-10 and the seventeen episodes of Season 11 of The Walking Dead are available to stream on Disney+. The final episodes of Season 11 will air weekly and complete the trilogy.
For more content from The Walking Dead, AMC revealed an exclusive first look at the upcoming Maggie and Negan spin-off, The Walking Dead: Dead City.
