The Walking Dead: How Andrew Lincoln Convinced Lesley-Ann Brandt to Join The Ones Who Live

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will not only reunite the flagship series’ co-stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and Danai Gurira (Michonne) but it will introduce a number of new faces to the Walking Dead universe, including Lucifer‘s Lesley-Ann Brandt. Brandt plays Pearl Thorne, an operative for CRM who is a completely original character to the show, she’s not in the comics. During a recent media junket for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Brandt tells Comicbook.com how she booked the role of Pearl Thorne and how Lincoln was fundamental in convincing her to become a member of the Walking Dead universe.

“Um I auditioned — I had a couple of projects actually at the time and I got them both. I actually had COVID when I booked this job,” Brandt said. “So I was taking care of my son. We both had COVID and I did it on Zoom, like I sent in a tape, did it on Zoom. I booked another job as well and I got to the point where I had to choose between two projects. You know, and we, we tried to make both work with one shot in Vancouver, one shot in where we shot in New Jersey. It was just very hard. So I made the decision to come with The Walking Dead after lovely Andy Lincoln wrote me an email through our agency and he just said, ‘please do our show. We loved your take, we love that you are native South African.’ and I think I made the right choice. But yeah, I auditioned and then I did a little read with Andy, Danai and Scott. And the costume directors were on Zoom as well. And, yeah, and then I got the job.”

The six-episode limited series follows on the heels of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan’s Dead City and Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon series, both of which have been great successes for AMC and have been green lit for second seasons. It will be Lincoln’s first time stepping back into the boots of Rick Grimes since he departed the series in season 9 to spend more time with his family. Originally, the concept for a Rick Grimes centric project was three films, the first of which would chronicle Rick’s journey after being captured by the mysterious CRM group following him sacrificing himself by blowing up the bridge to save his group from getting swarmed by walkers.

Per the synopsis, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is “an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?”

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres February 25 on AMC and AMC+.