AMC’s The Walking Dead adds Michael Cudlitz and Josh McDermitt

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

With "The Walking Dead" returning to AMC last night we can expect to hear a lot more news regarding the fourth season of the hit cable series over the next couple of months, and today that news comes in the form of some new casting announcements as The Hollywood Reporter is sharing that two pivotal characters from the comic series will be making their way to the small screen as Josh McDermitt ("Retired at 35") has been cast as a series regular portraying the role of Dr. Eugene Porter. Joining him is Michael Cudlitz ("Southland") who will also be a series regular as Porter’s traveling companion, Abraham.

Below lie SPOILERS from the comics, so, if you wish not to know, DO NOT proceed further.

In the Image/Skybound comics, Eugene is a former high school science teacher who first appears in the 53rd issue of the series. He travels with sports coach/Army Sgt. Abraham Ford (Cudlitz) and Rosita (new recurring player Christian Serratos).

The trio eventually crosses paths with Rick as they make their way to Washington. However, unbeknown to Rick as well as eventual couple Abraham and Rosita, Eugene is lying when he claims to know what caused the zombie outbreak and instead is using the physically superior former sports coach to protect him.

The character remains alive in the comics and proves to be a key part of Rick’s group, using his science know-how to manufacture ammunition.

Showrunner Scott Gimple says of the new additions…

"We're going to tell a version of the Eugene, Abraham and Rosita comic stories, that's what we do. I love those characters from the book; they are very different flavors of comic book characters than we've seen on the show."

The arrival of the characters also opens the door for the series to explore different locations than the prison, with Gimple sharing…

"We're going to get to those characters in a bit, but before that, we're going to be exploring a lot of different locations. We're at the prison the first two episodes. We start looking at other places in episode three on but that isn't even tied with them yet."

So we can't be certain of when we'll see these new characters yet, but from the sounds of it we won't have to wait too long.

"The Walking Dead" airs on Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.