The Walking Dead Actor Made a Secret Cameo in TWD: World Beyond

An actor from a past season of The Walking Dead claims a rare double-role by making a secret cameo in spinoff The Walking Dead: World Beyond. During a flashback in the season 1 episode “The Tyger and the Lamb,” a blood-stained Silas (Hal Cumpston) listens to a tape recording — gifted to him by his doting Papi and Grammy for his sixth birthday — as he’s handcuffed for a violent outburst committed against his father. In the present, ten years post-apocalypse, Silas comforts himself after surviving The Blaze of Gory with another tape from Grammy and Papi, who cites Bible verse Isaiah 40:28 as Silas cozies up with Iris (Aliyah Royale).

The Walking Dead: World Beyond co-creator and showrunner Matthew Negrete confirms the uncredited actor voicing Silas’ Papi is Jeff Kober, who played Joe in The Walking Dead and mini-series The Walking Dead: Red Machete.

Joe was the leader of the Claimers — a sadistic group of marauders encountered in the fourth season of The Walking Dead — until Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) violently killed him for terrorizing Carl (Chandler Riggs), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Daryl (Norman Reedus) in season 4 episode “A.”

Negrete confirmed the secret cameo on Twitter, adding that the voice of Silas’ Grammy is “also someone from the Walking Dead Universe.” Negrete, a writer on The Walking Dead from seasons 4 through 9, did not reveal their identity or whether they’re from The Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead.

The Twitter user who correctly identified Kober on Silas’ birthday tape speculates the grandmother’s voice belongs to Denise Crosby, who also appears in “A” as Terminus cannibal Mary. She’s the crazed woman killed after a fight with Carol (Melissa McBride) in “No Sanctuary,” the season 5 premiere of The Walking Dead.

Silas’ violent past continues to be a sticking point for the typically shy survivor, who once asked Iris if she believes he killed his father in an unfettered rage.

“Based on what we hear in the tapes, they’re his grandparents, and they’re leaving a voice message for him when he’s six years old, wishing him a happy birthday,” Negrete previously told EW about Silas’ tapes. “And they’re words of encouragement for him, and there are also some hints in there in terms of how they’re talking to him. And they seem to have this very comforting tone and they quote a prayer, a passage from the Bible, in that last section there with Silas.”

He continued, “And it’s assuring him that the world is good because we make it good, despite the adversity that we may face. So, there’s an implication there that even when Silas was six-years-old, there was something very harsh that he was facing. And his grandparents were trying very much to be there for him emotionally, even if they weren’t there for him physically.”

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. New episodes of The Walking Dead: World Beyond premiere Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.