The Walking Dead Cameo You Might Have Missed in “New Haunts”

There was some dad-daughter bonding on the set of The Walking Dead. King Ezekiel actor Khary Payton reveals that’s daughter, Maya, making a cameo as the mini Mercer in Sunday’s episode. In “New Haunts,” the Commonwealth celebrates Halloween with a carnival and a costume contest judged by Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins). She awards the first-place prize of 10 lottery tickets to Celeste, a young resident dressed as the red-armored General Mercer (Michael James Shaw) of the Commonwealth Army. Payton has shared a behind-the-scenes look at his daughter’s cameo on The Walking Dead, which you can watch in the above clip exclusively revealed by ComicBook. 

“When I got this job, my daughter, Maya, wasn’t too happy. It meant I would be away in Georgia much of the year,” Payton wrote during a takeover of The Walking Dead‘s Instagram account Sunday. “She’d say, ‘Just quit, daddy. Adults quit their jobs all the time!’ I’d fly home as often as I could but during the pandemic, it’s been especially tough. That’s why this episode means so much to me.”

Payton’s post continues, “Maya played the part of Celeste, a little girl who dresses up as Mercer for Halloween. We had an awesome day. She was so professional and so committed to telling her small part of the story. I could not be more proud.” 

“It’s still a little hard to get used to because this pandemic is like a horrible, deadly cold that won’t go away. It just keeps lingering and so we still are taking precautions,” Payton previously told ComicBook about returning to set for the eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead. “So we are far from back to normal, but I hope that by the end of the show, we’ll actually be able to really get together and truly see each other’s faces, and finally have that reunion that we really want.” 

Another Walking Dead Family member made a cameo when Gus Morgan, the son of “Here’s Negan” co-stars Hilarie Burton Morgan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, appeared as a child walker in Season 11 episode “Out of the Ashes.” 

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