Terry O’Quinn Never Watched The Walking Dead Before Being Cast in New Series

Terry O’Quinn was, ahem, lost when it came to The Walking Dead. The actor who played John Locke on Lost, Commander Joe White on Hawaii Five-0, and Tom Tavner on Patriot next debuts as CRM Major General Beale on The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, a character who has been mentioned in the mythology of the Civic Republic Military on The Walking Dead: World Beyond. With the new series (Feb. 25 on AMC) going inside the walls of the Civic Republic, O’Quinn is shedding light on his shadowy character and the moment it dawned on him that he had become part of the Walking Dead Universe. 

“It was the zombies, when I finally met the zombies. Because I had told people I hadn’t watched The Walking Dead,” O’Quinn told ComicBook. “The analogy that I use was there were a lot of trains running at that time and by the time I was aware of that one, it was well down the tracks. So I never really caught up to that.”

O’Quinn may not have jumped on the TWD train in time, but with the long-running zombie drama spinning off into new series — including World Beyond, Dead City, and Daryl Dixon — the actor had a perfect jumping-on point with help from TWD Universe chief content officer and The Ones Who Live showrunner Scott M. Gimple.

“When Scott called me, I told him I didn’t know [The Walking Dead]. He said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have to, I can tell you what you need to know,’” O’Quinn continued. “I think — back in the day when I first saw it — I saw zombies getting chopped up, and I was like, ‘I wanna go to sleep tonight. I just wanna sleep and I don’t wanna have that in my head.’ But when I saw the zombies, I thought, ‘Oh yeah, I’m there now.’”

Also new to the undead franchise is Lucifer actress Lesley-Ann Brandt, who plays CRM Sgt. Major Pearl Thorne, one of the soldiers in Beale’s command. Brandt told ComicBook she binged the entire series — all 11 seasons and 177 episodes — in less than three weeks to prepare for her role opposite Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes.

“It helped that I binged the show from the beginning. I did all the seasons, that’s a lot of Walking Dead,and I think I did it in like three weeks,” Brandt said. “I felt a responsibility toyou, the fans, and also in understanding the tone of the show and what made these two [Rick and Michonne] so special.What was the spark and how does my character come in to help tell thatstory? And what is my point of view? And what makes me different andsimilar to these two? Because I think, outside of this world, Michonneand Thorne would have probably been friends. They’re two strong women.And I think that plays into a little bit of the chemistry of those two.”

Fans will meet Beale and Thorne when The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live — starring Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, and Pollyanna McIntosh — premieres February 25 on AMC and AMC+. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow on Facebook for more TWD Universe coverage.