Rick Grimes’ Beard In New The Walking Dead Trailer Confirmed As A Fake

A new trailer for remainder of The Walking Dead Season 5 has raised quite a few questions with fans. The trailer shows Rick Grimes and several of his group making their way through a foggy forest. Several members of the group are shown firing their weapons at an unseen enemy.

One of the biggest questions has revolved around the members of the group that are not shown. There is no sign of Father Gabriel, Noah, Carl, or Judith. Anytime cast members are left out of a promo video, it always leads to speculation that those cast members might no longer be on the show.

Some fans have questioned whether the scene shown will actually occur sometime during the season or if the scene was created purely for the promotional video. Other fans have wondered if Rick Grimes' beard is real or not in the scene, since it's known that Andrew Lincoln shaved sometime during the filming of the second half of Season 5.

Thanks to an employee of the company that shot and edited the promo answering questions on a Reddit thread, we have a couple of the answers to fan questions. The employee revealed that the promo was shot after Season 5 had just wrapped filming, which means the scene was created specifically for the promo and is not an actual scene in Season 5.

The absence of Father Gabriel, Noah, Carl, and Judith probably shouldn't raise any alarms, as Father Gabriel and Noah only recently joined the show, and often promo videos only include the main cast. The absence of Carl and Judith could also be explained away as not wanting to lengthen the filming schedule for child actors. Also, given the intense action of the sequence, Judith and probably Carl as well would have likely seemed out of place.

Of course, since the promo filmed after Season 5 finished airing, it means that Andrew Lincoln had already shaved by that point in time. As many fans suspected, the employ of the production company confirmed, "It's a fake beard."

Lincoln's real beard remains safely locked away in Norman Reedus' refrigerator.

The Walking Dead Season 5 returns on Sunday, February 8 at 9 PM ET on AMC.