The final eight episodes of The Walking Dead are set to start airing on AMC on October 2nd, but the network has already made it clear that the characters of Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are going to make it through the finale. That’s because they’re going on to star in a spin-off called Isle of the Dead – and the names of three of their Isle of the Dead co-stars have just been announced!
Joining Cohan and Morgan in the cast are Mahina Napoleon (NCIS: Hawai’i), Zeljko Ivanek (Madam Secretary), and Jonathan Higginbotham (Shining Vale). Details on their characters are being kept under wraps, but we do know that Gaius Charles (Fright Night Lights) is playing Izaak, who is “confident, ruthless, and unyielding in the pursuit of what he believes is justice, with the force of his will and his menace. Izaak enjoys his work and intersperses humor with the terror he incites. This is a family man, devoted to building a safe world for his wife and daughters. His journey unearths a loss he is haunted by. He has patience and resilience and walks rather than runs from his mistakes.”
Undead Walking suggests that Karina Ortiz (Orange Is the New Black) and Caleb Reese Paul (The Other Two) may be in the cast as well, but their involvement with Isle of the Dead hasn’t been officially announced at this point.
Eli Jorné, who has been a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Dead for multiple seasons, serves as showrunner on Isle of the Dead, which will see
Maggie and Negan traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.
Cohan, Morgan, and Jorné are executive producing Isle of the Dead with Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer of The Walking Dead universe. The series will launch on AMC and AMC+ sometime in 2023.
Are you looking forward to Isle of the Dead? Share your thoughts on this project by leaving a comment below.