It might be the end of an era for The Walking Dead as the series wraps up with The Walking Dead season 11, but thanks to the recent spinoff Tales of the Walking Dead it’s now possible for characters from across the TWD Universe to show up in the past, present or future.
What to Watch had a chance to speak with several members of The Walking Dead cast ahead of the season 11 premiere and we asked if they had a dream story for their characters should they ever have a chance to appear on future episodes of Tales of the Walking Dead.
Ross Marquand (Aaron)
"I like the idea of having a background. One of my favorite episodes of the show is when we go back into Abraham’s background and explore what he was doing around the beginning of the apocalypse with his family.
"One of the things that always stuck out to me as a great character note was in the second episode I’m in, I was talking to Rick and he’s interrogating me and he’s asking why I’m so comfortable with guns pointed in my face and I say before the world ended I worked for an NGO in Nigeria or something, where [Aaron] was having warlords pointing guns in his face all the time so he was used to violence and all this terror before the world ended.
"I think it would be cool to do a miniseries of all our series regulars to see where they were immediately before the apocalypse. I think it would be really cool to explore that. I think it would be a neat idea."
Josh Hamilton (Lance Hornsby)
"Yeah, I agree [with Ross], like right before and during is the most interesting to see how everyone reacts to it. When you pick people up years into it, humans have such an amazing capacity for adapting to almost anything but to watch them make that shift is interesting. One of my favorite episodes is with Negan and his wife dealing with that in the beginning. So yeah, that’s what I’d like to see."
Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel)
"I’m not sure how interesting a story about Father Gabriel in his church would be before the church fell. It seems like a lot of the character development happened after that event for Father Gabriel and I think he’s a far more multifaceted character as the show goes on. I’m not sure how much of that I would be able to bring forth before the world fell. Unless he secretly has a body hidden in the basement."
Michael James Shaw (Mercer)
"You know, I’ve always wondered how Mercer and Max made it to the Commonwealth and what hell they went through to earn living with that peace of mind of living there. I think it would be exciting to see the point of first infection to see what happens with some of these characters and how they get to where they are. I’m sure it’s a f-ing war to get to the Commonwealth."
Laila Robins (Pamela Milton)
"I would like to see my life with my father [referring here to Pamela’s father] and some of the things I went through to earn his respect or to earn the family legacy. You’d have to make me 30 years younger, but there’s always CGI! But that would be fun to see that, and where she comes from and what makes her tick and why she is the way she is. I’d love to see that backstory."
Okea Eme-Akwari (Elijah)
"I think I’d love to see a bit more of Elijah’s home life and where he got his training from, the origins of his mask and how he got so skilled with his weapons. I think that might be an interesting thing to explore."
Eleanor Matsuura (Yumiko)
"Origin stories are always the best, aren’t they? You can have the most fun with them. With Yumiko, Angela [Kang] always said she could be from where I’m from, the UK, so I’d love to see that story of how they came all the way from Europe and ended up in Virginia. I think there’s so much story to be told there, especially now that they’ve found her brother in the Commonwealth.
"It’s hinted at, and I’m not sure how much it’s ever been explored to its fullest in this season, but the backstory we wanted to share with Tomi is that he has a lot of addiction problems and he has a murkier past as well, plus my relationship with Magna who I met while she was in jail and I was her lawyer. So how did we all get there? I think there’s so much interesting story to be told. It would be very cool to explore."
Nadia Hilker (Magna)
"If there was one wish that could come true it would be to see her backstory and where she came from, and her and Yumiko. Yeah. A hundred percent."
Margot Bingham (Max)
"I think one of the cool things about the show is when the episodes are really focused on the characters. There’s nothing I love more in a TV program than when you see a character and where they originated from and where they came from. It just connects you so much more. So yeah, I think that would be awesome for every one of us to be able to see our origin story and see how we came to this point, see all of the people we lost. It only connects fans more and I think that’s just one of the coolest journeys to see on a TV show."
Paola Lazaro (Princess)
"I agree with Nadia and Margot. I think it would be really exciting to see where all these people came from and what their lives were. I think it would be awesome to see everything that came before the apocalypse…like working at Starbucks or something."
Josh McDermitt (Eugene)
"I think it would be awesome if we did a sitcom style episode, with Max and Eugene and it’s like the show Roseanne where they’re living in this house and sitting around the kitchen table and they’ve been married for 35 years. (Margot Bingham jumps in and adds, “And Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) comes in and it’s like ‘wah wah wah.’”) Then they kiss and the audience is like “oooh.” And then people get instant laughs like Kramer in Seinfeld from just walking in the door. This is why they don’t include us in any of the pitch meetings…"
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC.
