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The town of Alexandria on The Walking Dead is about to get a little bit bigger, and we have some new intel and photos on some of the characters we’ll be meeting for the first time when the show returns for season 6 on Oct. 11. It was announced at Comic-Con in San Diego that Ethan Embry and Merritt Wever would be joining the cast, but no other details were given on whom they would be playing. We have your exclusive first pictures of both as well as scoop from showrunner Scott M. Gimple on their characters, plus a fresh look at another new Alexandrian.
Wever, who won an Emmy playing nurse Zoe Barkow on Nurse Jackie, now gets a promotion to full-blown doctor. We can reveal she will be playing Dr. Denise Cloyd, a character from The Walking Dead comic, and you can see the first photo of Wever as Denise above. Denise’s role as a medic becomes critical in the community of Alexandria after the death of Pete, and in the comic her skills as a surgeon prove pivotal, especially after a ghastly injury incurred by one of the main characters—an injury which may or may not happen on the TV version.
But that’s not the only scoop we have for you. Embry (seen most recently on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie) is also joining the cast, and in addition to the exclusive first photo of him above, we can also reveal that he is playing the role of Carter. Gimple says Carter serves as a composite of different people from the original comic. “Ethan plays a combo of a few characters that we actually haven’t hit yet or weren’t able to hit in other characters,” says Gimple. “He is an Alexandrian, and has been there the whole time, just quite busy.” From the looks of the season 6 trailer that was released at Comic-Con, Carter now looks like he’ll be busy trying to turn the community against Rick for all the violence that has come to town. We’ll see how that pans out for him.
In addition to these two newbies, we’ll also be meeting another Alexandrian in season 6. It’s already been announced that Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton) will be playing a character named Heath from the comic who is a supply-runner for the town (and one who becomes romantically linked to Denise in the original source material), but we’ve got an exclusive new photo for you above. Gimple had this to tell EW about Hawkins in the role: “He’s terrific and I’m so excited to see him bring Heath to life. It’s been fun and he dove in with both feet. He’s tough and skeptical when the cameras are rolling, and then when they’re off he’s just like a goofy fan. He’s really, really excited to be there.”