After being accused of abuse and assault by ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra, host of Talking Dead Chris Hardwick has since distanced himself from his regular San Diego Comic-Con hosting duties and was replaced by Yvette Nicole Brown on the Walking Dead panel.
But with supporters and detractors all sounding off on each development that occurs, Brown has spoken out about taking Hardwick’s place in response to people claiming she’s vying for his job.
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“I will say this once. I am filling in for a friend, which I have done before,” Brown said on Twitter. “I am not jockeying for a job. I have enough of my own. It is my prayer that God’s Will is done in the midst of this process & that everyone is okay. My character is known & sound. Nothing has changed.”
Brown was announced as Hardwick’s replacement yesterday in a report from Deadline, which also shed some light on the franchise’s yearly staple at the convention. Casts from both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead will be in attendance at Hall H.
The report suggests cast members and producers will include outgoing star Andrew Lincoln as well as Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Norman Reedus from the main series, and also new showrunner Angela Kang. Fear cast members expected are the recently killed-off Kim Dickens, and Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo and Lennie James.
Brown was a fixture on Hardwick’s Talking Dead talkshow, which regularly aired right after episodes of both series to discuss the events and interview cast members and producers. She’s known among followers to be a die hard superfan of The Walking Dead, and is a talented actor in her own right.
She burst onto the scene in the popular NBC series Community as Shirley, playing a maternal role to the group of cranky community college students. She also had roles on The Mayor and The Odd Couple reboot.
Hardwick distanced himself from Talking Dead and his other AMC duties after ex Chloe Dykstra penned an essay that alleged abuse. Though she didn’t name Hardwick in the essay, the content of her Medium post made it clear that she was referring to him.
Hardwick has since denied the allegations, and his text messages to Dykstra were released by TMZ. The messages do not clarify whether abuse actually took place, but did provide a small amount of insight into the end of their relationship.
AMC is investigating the incident before making a final decision on whether or not to sever ties with Hardwick permanently.
