Back in 2020, AMC announced that The Walking Dead would live on after its 11th and final season through various spinoffs and follow ups. One of them is Tales of the Walking Dead, an anthology series featuring characters both new and old in AMC’s zombie universe. And as it gets closer to its planned summer release, more stars are being added into the zombified fold, as it were.
Earlier in the month, the first casting additions for the show included Terry Crews, Jillian Bell, and Parker Posey. Earlier this week, some more castmates were announced, and most of them were superheroes in a past life. Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse), Danny Ramirez (Falcon & the Winter Solder), Loan Chabanol (Third Person), and Embeth Davidtz (Old) will all lend their acting talents to the series for at least one episode. I’d say the day is saved now that superheroes are in this zombie-infested world, but…well.
In a statement, Walking Dead’s chief content producer Scott M. Gimple praised the cast and promised they’d help the anthology bring “emotional, shocking, scary, and crazy stories” to the series. And if there’s one thing that connects this new batch of actors, it would have to be their dramatic chops. Munn came to prominence thanks to Aaron Sorkin’s HBO drama The Newsroom; Ramirez’s additional credits include the 2019 indie drama Lost Transmissions and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick. Much of Davidtz’ career is made up of dramas, including Ray Donovan, Fracture, and Murder in the First. (To go back to the superhero link from before, she was very briefly Mary Parker in the Amazing Spider-Man films.) And if you had Starz during the late 2010s, you probably remember Usher for the underrated and short-lived Survivor’s Remorse.
Between all of them, it should make for some weighty, impactful episodes where people are reminded about the cruelty of man. With each episode intended to feel like “unique, little films” according to producer Channing Powell, here’s hoping each of them make an impression enough to stick around in the universe should their schedules allow it. Assuming they don’t die in some tragic fashion, that is.