Former ‘The Walking Dead’ Star Cosplays as a Pokemon

Former The Walking Dead star Michael Cudlitz traded in Sgt. Abraham Ford's fiery red top for Pokémon-themed headwear.

#mood pic.twitter.com/t7lrtWLuo0

— Michael Cudlitz (@Cudlitz) October 20, 2018

Cudlitz returned to the franchise in Season Nine as director. He makes his directorial debut on episode 907, "Stradivarius," which will be a big episode for Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and several new characters soon to enter the series.

The former Abraham actor is the first star of The Walking Dead to direct an episode of the flagship series. Fear the Walking Dead star Colman Domingo was the first-ever actor of either series to direct an episode of the franchise when he helmed an episode of the spinoff in its fourth season.

"It was nice being directed by someone from our group, you know?" Reedus told Skybound of being steered by his former co-star. "When you're in the field with someone who has become your brother there's a shared shorthand and you get it, you know it, what's corny and what's not."

Reedus praised Cudlitz for tackling a "really hard episode to direct" in his first behind-the-camera effort.

"And it was a lot of different directions going," he said. "It was one of those episodes you read it and you're like oh, we need four weeks to shoot it. But that guy, he came in and did so much homework. He did more prep than a lot of the directors, to be honest. He came ready to play."

When discussing his return to the series with TheWrap, Cudlitz noted he was "welcomed back so lovingly and taken care of by the crew and the cast."

"Everybody was just rooting for my success and when you enter in that way, you are already in a position to succeed," he said. "The great thing about directing the cast was that the cast is changing now, so I had a wonderful experience about being [able] to direct, basically half of my cast was brand new and the rest were people that I have longstanding, amazing relationships with."

Cudlitz now headlines the just-debuted '70s-set ABC sitcom The Kids Are Alright as Mike Cleary, patriarch of a traditional Irish-Catholic family and father to eight boys.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC. The Cudlitz-directed episode premieres November 18.