The Walking Dead: Ryan Hurst Hints at Beta Prequel

The Walking Dead star Ryan Hurst hints Tales of the Walking Dead will unmask Whisperer Beta with a prequel exposing the villain’s secret history. The episodic anthology series, now in development at AMC under Walking Dead Universe chief content officer Scott Gimple, brings forth “backstories or other stand-alone experiences” with individual episodes or arcs of episodes focused on new or existing characters. In July, Gimple teased the spinoff will revisit the earliest days of the zombie apocalypse that has continued for a decade by the time of The Walking Dead Season 10.

Replying to a Talking Dead tweet prompting fans to name the characters they wish to see featured in Tales of the Walking Dead, Hurst wrote, “I’ve got some ideas…”

Hurst appeared to hint at Beta’s origin story during a March convention appearance, where the actor revealed he met with Gimple to discuss “a very exciting thing that may or may not happen that I cannot talk about.”

The face of an unmasked Beta first appeared in a fifth season episode of Texas-set spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, spotted on a vinyl album revealing Beta’s history as a musician. The tenth season of The Walking Dead featured music secretly recorded by Hurst before confirming that Beta, whose real name is still unknown, was once a famed country music singer.

Pieces of Beta’s backstory were glimpsed earlier in the tenth season when “We Are the End of the World” revealed his first encounter with Alpha (Samantha Morton), the future leader of the Whisperers, towards the onset of the apocalypse.

Hurst revealed his character’s traumatic origin story when appearing on Talking Dead, where the actor detailed the backstory he shaped with showrunner Angela Kang when fleshing out Beta’s past life. The Whisperer lieutenant does not receive an origin story in the comic books, where two characters recognize Beta’s exposed face as a famous professional basketball player.

Beta first returns in The Walking Dead Season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” where he engages the final battle of the Whisperer War to avenge his slain Alpha.

Michael Cudlitz, who portrayed Abraham Ford on the flagship series, is also expected to return to the Walking Dead Universe with a prequel to unfurl in Tales of the Walking Dead. The spinoff is currently undated at AMC.

The Walking Dead Season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” premieres Sunday, October 4 on AMC, followed by the series premiere of new spinoff The Walking Dead: World Beyond. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.