“The Walking Dead” star Michael Cudlitz is returning to the AMC zombie apocalypse series to direct Season 9’s seventh episode, a person with knowledge of production tells TheWrap.
Cudlitz formerly played the show’s Abraham Ford character, who was killed by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in the Season 7 premiere, right before the Lucille-wielding villain also offed Glenn (Steven Yuen).
The fan-favorite Cudlitz will be the first “Walking Dead” star to direct an episode of the series. “Fear the Walking Dead” star Colman Domingo directed the spinoff’s upcoming 12th episode of Season 4.
After playing Abraham for three seasons on the AMC drama, Cudlitz has enjoyed on-screen roles in TV movie “The Trustee” and on CBS’s “Young Sheldon.” This fall, he’ll test his comedic chops as star of ABC sitcom “The Kids Are Alright.”
In other Monday “Walking Dead” news, Broadway actress Lauren Ridloff has been cast as Connie, a character who, like Ridloff, is deaf and uses American Sign Language to communicate. Ridloff is the series’ first deaf actress.
Though Connie comes from the comic books — she first appears in Issue 127 — the graphic novels’ version of Connie is not deaf.
In the comics, Connie is part of a survival group that is led by a woman named Magna who shows up after the time jump. Connie is still alive on those storyboards.
“The Walking Dead” returns to AMC for Season 9 this fall. “Fear the Walking Dead” returns for the back-half of Season 4 on August 12.
Comicbook.com first reported the news.