Two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton was recently cast in the ninth season of AMC's The Walking Dead as a character called Alpha, the leader of a strange group of zombie apocalypse survivors referred to as the Whisperers. Now two other major Whisperer roles have been cast – those roles being Alpha's "brutal and unmoving" right hand man Beta and her young daughter Lydia.
Lydia is set to be played by Cassady McClincy, an actress genre fans may have recently seen on the Stephen King series Castle Rock, in which she played the younger version of Melanie Lynskey's character. Lydia had a major storyline in The Walking Dead's comic book source material where she struck up a kind of "Romeo and Juliet" romance with Carl Grimes, son of the Alexandria community's leader Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). The TV version of Carl was killed off last season, though, so it's not clear what Lydia's story will be on the show.
Filling the role of Beta is Ryan Hurst, who is best known for playing Opie on Sons of Anarchy. I know him best for playing Chick on Bates Motel, and I loved his performance on that show so I'm really excited to hear that he's joining the cast of The Walking Dead. Especially since he'll be playing a character who's apparently a badass villain.
There are several new characters being added to The Walking Dead now that the war waged between communities in recent seasons has come to an end. In addition to Morton, McClincy, and Hurst, other new cast members include Brett Butler, Nadia Hilker, John Finn, Rhys Coiro, Dan Fogler, Zach McGowen, Angel Theory, Lauren Ridloff, and Eleanor Matsuura, who will be playing the roles of Tammy, Magna, Earl, Jed, Luke, Justin, Kelly, Connie, and Yumiko, respectively.
The premiere episode of The Walking Dead season 9 will air on AMC October 7th.
