The Walking Dead Season Nine will feature the return of past stars Scott Wilson and Sonequa Martin-Green as Hershel Greene and Sasha, respectively, showrunner Angela Kang announced at New York Comic Con Saturday. Kang also officially confirmed the return of Jon Bernthal as the long-dead Shane Walsh.
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“We were trying to lie and obfuscate for a long time, but we want to confirm that Jon Bernthal, who played Shane, will visit this season and come back,” Kang said. “We also have the wonderful Scott Wilson as Hershel as well as our wonderful Sonequa Martin-Green.”
How the pair of fan-favorites return, Kang teased, “That’s for people to watch.”
Executive producer Scott Gimple previously lamented how Bernthal’s surprise return was spoiled when the actor was spotted on The Walking Dead‘s Georgia set, according to TV Line. Gimple said Shane’s appearance — by way of flashback or hallucination — will involve “‘some very cool, very heavy stuff.’”
The returning characters could appear in Rick Grimes star Andrew Lincoln’s final episode, which Lincoln teased will be a bloody one.
“I think it was about day two of filming and I asked Greg Nicotero, who was shooting the episode, ‘How many pints of blood does a human actually hold? Because I’m not sure I’m going to make it through the credit sequence,’” Lincoln told Entertainment Tonight.
Wilson, who joined the show as simple farmer Hershel in Season Two, exited the series in Season Four when Hershel was brutally decapitated by the Governor (David Morrissey) during the villain’s relentless assault on the prison Rick and company called home.
Martin-Green exited in Season Seven after Sasha, resigning herself to save her friends from another death at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors, imbibed a suicide pill concocted by then-Savior Eugene (Josh McDermitt), ultimately unleashing her reanimated corpse on a surprised Negan.
Fans can expect other surprising faces to show up in The Walking Dead‘s newest season as it bids farewell to Andrew Lincoln and Rick Grimes after eight-and-a-half seasons.
The Walking Dead Season Nine premieres Sunday, October 7 at 9/8c on AMC.