Hilarie Burton Cast As Lucille In ‘The Walking Dead’
It seems that at least one of the 6 additional episodes which were added a few months ago to Season 10 of ‘The Walking Dead‘ will explore Negan’s backstory, as Hilarie Burton, real-life wife of Jeffery Dean Morgan, lands a guest-starring role as Lucille in the zombie series.
Now, if you’re thinking “she doesn’t look much like a baseball bat…”, Negan’s famed weapon was named after his late wife, who died of pancreatic cancer.
“Been pretty hard to keep this a secret,” the actress shared on Twitter. “But I love working with @JDMorgan. I love watching him become #Negan and take on that swagger. And I love the @TheWalkingDead family. They’ve been a part of our family for ages and I’m so grateful for their kindness.”
Burton is probably best known for her role as Peyton Sawyer in ‘One Tree Hill’ (which you can currently catch on All 4 in the UK), along with playing Sara Ellis in the series ‘White Collar’. She’s also popped up in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ‘Council of Dads’, and recently co-presented talk show ‘Friday Night in With the Morgans’ on AMC with husband Jeffery Dean Morgan.
We don’t know a whole lot about the character of Lucille in the TV Walking Dead universe, other than she died of pancreatic cancer around the beginning of the outbreak, and Negan regrets not being able to bring himself to “put her down.” A bit more of Lucille’s story and how it helped Negan become… well… Negan… is explored in the short-run comic book series Here’s Negan.
In addition to adding 6 episodes to Season 10, which are planned to air in “early 2021” (assuming they can get it all produced), AMC announced last month that the 11th Season would be the last for the main ‘Walking Dead’ show. However, that final season will span 24 episodes over two years, with the last episodes planned to air in late 2022. Once that ends, fan favourites Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) will continue in a new spin-off series which will premiere in 2023 and be run by TWD showrunner Angela Kang, who co-created the series with TWD overlord, Scott M. Gimple. In addition to that, AMC is also working with Gimple to develop a new ‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ series, an episodic anthology with individual episodes or arcs of episodes focused on new or existing characters, backstories or other stand-alone experiences.
‘The Walking Dead‘ Season 10 (part 3) will premiere in 2021 on AMC in the US, and FOX in the UK.
