AMC's The Walking Dead lost a good amount of characters during the "all-out war" storyline of its eighth season, but it also introduced a couple new characters who are now confirmed to be getting more screen time next season.
Being promoted from recurring status to series regulars are Avi Nash's Siddiq and Callan McAuliffe's Alden.
The casting breakdown for Siddiq described him as "an innately likable Muslim American whose nerves are, let’s say, jangled, because he’s flown solo for too long in zombieland." He's a character from the comic book source material, although he was introduced to the show in a much different way and possesses medical knowledge that his comic book counterpart did not have.
A former member of the Saviors community, Alden has now found a new home at Hilltop – and it sure looks like he's going to become a love interest to Hilltop's widowed, pregnant leader Maggie (Lauren Cohan). Described as a "sexy, blue-collar twenty-something whose survival skills include sarcasm", Alden is not from the pages of the comic, but if he does indeed end up in a relationship with Maggie it would seem that he's a reworked version of a comic character named Dante.
Siddiq and Alden both made a positive impression on me during season 8, so I look forward to seeing more of them in season 9.
AMC is waiting until July's San Diego Comic-Con to announce the season 9 premiere date, but we can be pretty sure that The Walking Dead will be returning to the air sometime in October.