Go Behind the Scenes With the ‘Walking Dead,’ ‘Fear’ & ‘World Beyond’ Casts
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s The Walking Dead Universe Special Collector’s Issue, which is available for international pre-order online atTheWalkingDeadMag.com and is available nationwide on newsstands now.
Marauding zombies are no laughing matter — except when cameras stop rolling and the casts of TWDU cut loose!
As you’ll see in the photos below, the stars of The Walking Dead and its spinoffs, Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, have quite a bit of fun on set together, even when (sort of) recreating death scenes and dealing with the prosthetics and walkers. And with everything they’re dealing with on-screen, they need those off-screen smiles. (Quite a few of these actors have left the shows, some in a grisly fashion.)
Scroll down to take a look at the stars across the three shows, relive some memorable moments, and get insight from the cast and crew about their characters and these episodes.
The Walking Dead, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC
The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, October 3, 10/9c, AMC
Fear the Walking Dead, Season 7 Premiere, Sunday, October 17, 9/8c, AMC
Greg Nicotero juggles exec producer and special makeup effects supervisor duties and plays out childhood dreams when he gets to shuffle onscreen as a walker, as he did here in Season 6. “I loved horror movies when I was a kid,” he says. “It was all about Frankenstein and the Wolfman. I was rabid for that stuff!”
Rick (Andrew Lincoln) had to shoot this bunny-slippered young zombie, named Summer, at a Georgia highway rest stop in The Walking Dead’s 2010 pilot. Flash-forward to 2017, and the same actress, Addy Miller, would return in the Season 8 premiere to commemorate the drama’s 100th episode. Her role? Full-grown walker, of course!
In Season 7’s “Something They Need,” deceptive—and greedy for power—Gregory considers taking out leader Maggie instead of standing guard while she transplants a blueberry bush outside Hilltop’s walls. Here, Xander Berkeley and Lauren Cohan offer a comedic spin on the scene.
Alanna Masterson, who played Tara, gives a hug to Seth Gilliam, aka Father Gabriel, during the shooting of Season 7. On the actress’ very first day on the job (she joined in Season 4), none of the original cast members were in any of her scenes, but Lincoln and Steven Yeun came in just to welcome her to the series—a tradition that continues between existing Dead stars and newcomers.
Coming from the comic books, the unpredictable, one-of-a-kind character of Princess (Paola Lázaro) brought a breath of fresh air to Season 10. Says the actress: “I see a lot of Princess in myself when I was a kid. The joy. The energy. The laughter. The smile. The hope. And also the struggles.”
Another case of onscreen murder attempt, offscreen smiles! In the Season 7 finale, Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green, in her last episode) takes a suicide pill to weaponize herself as a walker in an attempt to bring down Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). She fails and is put down for good.
In Season 8’s “The King, the Widow and Rick,” Carol (Melissa McBride) has to go through Jerry (Cooper Andrews) to get to King Ezekiel (Khary Payton, not pictured). McBride’s off-camera offensive: tickling! While Senoia, Georgia, hosts most of TWD’s production, scenes at the Kingdom were shot at Atlanta’s Fort McPherson, a former military base turned into studio space by producer Tyler Perry.
Being a kid in TWDU isn’t easy—onscreen, at least. In Season 10’s “The Tower,” Lydia (Cassady McClincy, right) deals with her mother Alpha’s death, and Judith (Cailey Fleming, left) “is just trying to keep herself [and her family] alive,” the actress says.
A gifted mimic, actor Ross Marquand, who stars as onetime recruiter Aaron, is a dead ringer—or should we say a live ringer—for this Season 8 walker.
Denise didn’t see that coming. For the doc’s death scene in Season 6’s “Twice as Far,” Merritt Wever wore a prosthetic with a protruding arrow over her closed eye—a balance challenge!
Let’s ride! Danai Gurira (Michonne) and Norman Reedus (Daryl) on set in Season 3.
Say cheese! Christian Serratos (left, Rosita) and Masterson (Tara) pose up with a gory pal during production of Season 7’s “Rock in the Road.”
Ryan Hurst sums up his character Beta’s loyalty to Whisperers leader Alpha (Samantha Morton) as “this big old dude following this crazy bald lady”—even after she loses her head in Season 10!
As if the hungry infected aren’t bad enough, how about radioactive infected? The threat is real in “The Little Prince” from Fear Season 5. Before a second reactor can melt down, former power plant worker Grace (Karen David, geared up) hopes to stop the tragedy from happening.
Alycia Debnam-Carey (far left)—Fear’s defiant Alicia since the 2015 pilot—says, “I’ve been a part of this family for such a long time, and that’s cheesy and corny, but it’s just a really beautiful thing. I’m very lucky to have that.” During filming for the Season 3 finale, “Sleigh Ride,” she’s joined by OG cast members Rubén Blades (Salazar), Colman Domingo (Strand) and Kim Dickens (her TV mom, Madison).
Fan favorite Morgan (Lennie James) must have at least nine lives—he’s narrowly escaped death multiple times over the years. And if his love Grace’s dream holds true, Morgan could still be going strong 16 or so years into the future. Here, James gets his “gray” hair and age makeup touched up for the fantastical sequence from Fear Season 6’s “In Dreams.”
“If this was really happening,” Fear’s Frank Dillane says, “humans would be looking beyond their bourgeois concerns. They’d be looking for reasons and answers.” In Season 2’s “Grotesque,” his character, ex-addict Nick, bloodies himself up and walks among the dead seeking…something.
Those important friendships of youth are key to World Beyond, which gives off “very distinct Stand by Me vibes,” says exec producer Matt Negrete. So when Elton (Nicolas Cantu) trips carrying buckets of nail polish meant to fuel a boat engine in “Madman Across the Water,” his buddy Silas (Hal Cumpston) is there to lend a helping hand.
World Beyond’s Nico Tortorella says Felix “protects the people around him in a way that’s contradictory to the stereotype of what a gay character usually is on television.” In “Madman Across the Water,” for example, the quick-thinking hero attempts to slow a herd of empties by tying fishing line between two tree trunks.
Fear raised the bar on innovating the infected with Season 6’s “Damage From the Inside,” which introduced Ed (Raphael Sbarge), a taxidermist who added animalistic features like antlers to the dead (with Debnam-Carey). The character was named after Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, “The Butcher of Plainfield.”
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