Michael Biehn “Said Yes Right Away” to The Walking Dead Role

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Warlords” episode of The Walking Dead. Michael Biehn says he “said ‘yes’ right away” to his guest-starring Walking Dead role. The Aliens actor plays Ian, the whacko warlord leader of the Riverbend group encountered by Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) on Sunday’s Season 11 Episode 13. After his recent return to television as a mercenary in a Season 2 episode of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, the Terminator star was offered a role on the final season of the AMC zombie drama: 

“To tell you the truth, I have been watching The Walking Dead since it premiered. I remember the first year of The Walking Dead, I watched it, and I said to myself, ‘I want to be on that show,’” Biehn said on Talking Dead. “I just thought it was a really, really quality show, and I’ve always wanted to be a part of it. For whatever reason — whether it was my schedule or interest, or non-interest [from TWD] — I was never offered a role until this past season, nor did I ever audition for a role. But it’s a show that I’ve always thought was quality.”

Like Terminator 2: Judgment Day actor Robert Patrick, who guest-starred opposite Marquand and Gilliam in the Season 10 episode “One More,” Biehn won’t be back: former CIA agent Toby Carlson (Jason Butler Harner) tortures and kills the warlord. 

“When you look at a show that’s been on for 12 years, it’s absolutely astounding that you have a show for 12 years. It just speaks to the quality of the show,” Biehn said. “I got a call from my agent, they had offered me a role, I read it, I thought it was a really fun character, so I said ‘yes’ right away.” 

“It’s so funny, because I definitely kind of laughed when I heard that Michael was going to be playing the part,” Marquand exclusively told ComicBook about the Walking Dead warlord. “Because I was so excited to work with Robert [Patrick] last year and excited but also intimidated because I love his body of work and also, he usually plays such scary badasses that I was worried that he was going to come to set and be kind of gruff or whatever. Robert couldn’t have been nicer, couldn’t have been more fun to talk to. We were laughing and joking around half the time. And then it came time to work, he was most professional and easy to work with.”

“And I got to say, I had the same trepidation about working with Michael because he also plays gruff badasses,” Marquand added with a laugh. “They were both just the most lovely, affable, fun-to-talk-to guys. I mean, we’re so lucky to have such incredible veteran actors like them to play on our show, even if it was just for an episode. I mean, we really lucked out getting both of them to play in our universe. They were both so much fun to work with and I’m just really pleased that they got to play in our world.” 

Read ComicBook’s full spoilers Q&A with Ross Marquand. 

Follow @CameronBonomolo on Twitter and @NewsOfTheDead for TWD Universe coverage all season long. New episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season Part 2 of 3 air Sundays on AMC and AMC+.