Walking Dead Star Talks [Spoiler’s] Fate After Cliffhanger Ending

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Lockdown” midseason premiere of The Walking Dead. With the flip of a coin, Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) was to decide the fates of Oceanside, Hilltop, and Alexandria in April’s “Acts of God” midseason finale. After hired gun Leah (Lynn Collins) failed to kill Hilltop leader Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan), the Commonwealth’s ambitious and duplicitous Deputy Governor took the allied communities by force. Amid a manhunt for Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) — and with Maggie and AWOL trooper Daryl (Norman Reedus) in Hornsby’s crosshairs — Daryl shot the coin-flipping conniver in the face.

The Walking Dead‘s final midseason premiere, titled “Lockdown,” showed an unhinged Hornsby hunting Daryl and Maggie’s group, joined by Riversiders Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his pregnant wife Annie (Medina Senghore). “This ends here,” Hornsby told his squad of white-armored soldiers, ordering their targets shot on sight.

Trapped behind military checkpoints, it was a race against time for the group to extract their people from the Commonwealth before Hornsby could get a signal and radio his spies back at the community. Inside the Commonwealth’s walls, Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) attempted to quell her own rebellion, unaware of her deputy governor’s attempted coup d’état.

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Flanked by Hornsby’s squad of soldiers, Daryl’s group moved underground through the sewers, deciding to draw their enemies to them. Outnumbered and outgunned, Daryl’s group ambushed the Commonwealth soldiers in an armed standoff. The episode ended with Daryl putting his knife to the throat of a hostage Hornby — who then grinned as the episode cut to black.

Will Hornsby be taken dead or alive? Images from the final episodes — spoiler alert! — show Hornsby in Commonwealth custody. Like his trusty coin, might Hornsby flip over a new side? 

“I don’t think he ever had a problem with his morals to begin with,” Hamilton exclusively told ComicBook. “I don’t think Lance thinks of himself of having nefarious aims. I think he’s out to do the best job he can, I think.”

Asked if Hornsby might find redemption behind bars like Negan, Hamilton said, “I don’t think, in his mind, he has a redemption to make. He’s just trying to just do the best he can and for the Commonwealth and for himself, too. But I don’t think he feels like he has a moral U-turn to make.”

As for what fate might have in store for Hornsby after these final eight episodes, a tight-lipped Hamilton joked, “We’re in talks of developing a musical stage production just called ‘Hornsby!’ With a big exclamation point. I think it’s going to really change musical theater as we know it.” 

Follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for TWD Universe coverage all season long. New episodes of The Walking Dead‘s final season premiere Sundays on AMC and AMC+.