How to Get Cast on a ‘Walking Dead’ Series

Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard, AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is a post-apocalyptic horror-thriller about a zombie—or “walker”—apocalypse, in which survivors must band together to stay alive. The series begins with Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes waking up from a coma to find the world in ruins amid the zombie apocalypse. He partners with fellow survivors, such as Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), to find his family. 

The following season, audiences are introduced to Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) as the survivors escape Atlanta; but tension builds within the group, and they eventually attract walkers. The remaining seasons continue to follow the crew, which grows with characters like Michonne Hawthorne (Danai Gurira) and Negan Smith (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), as they travel to find shelter and settle. Not everyone makes it, and the group must adapt—especially when confronted with other groups of survivors.

In June 2023, “The Walking Dead: Dead City” found Maggie (Cohan) partnering with Negan (Morgan), the man who killed her husband, in post-apocalyptic Manhattan as she searches for her missing son, Hershel (Logan Kim). 

Then in September 2023, Reedus reprised his role for “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.” Season 1 of “Daryl Dixon” followed its eponymous character after he washes ashore in France without any recollection of how he got there or why. Equipped with a will to survive, Daryl won’t stop until he finds his way home.

This past February, “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” reunited Rick (Lincoln) with Michonne (Gurira), who believed her love had perished at the end of the original series.

Next up, Season 2 of “Daryl Dixon” premieres Sept. 29 on AMC, now titled, “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—The Book of Carol.” The second season finds Carol (McBride) traveling to France to track down her friend.

During its decade-plus run, “The Walking Dead” turned its new stars into household names:

• Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon
• Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier
• Danai Gurira as Michonne Hawthorne
• Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes
• Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee
• Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes
• Josh McDermitt as Eugene Porter
• Christian Serratos as Rosita Espinosa
• Seth Gilliam as Gabriel Stokes
• Alanna Masterson as Tara Chambler
• Ross Marquand as Aaron
• Steven Yeun as Glenn Rhee
• Sonequa Martin-Green as Sasha Williams
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan Smith
• Lennie James as Morgan Jones
• Khary Payton as Ezekiel
• Tom Payne as Paul “Jesus” Rovia
• Scott Wilson as Hershel Greene

Many of the original series’ most prominent players have returned for the spinoffs alongside new cast members. “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” stars Reedus as Daryl, along with:

• Clémence Poésy as Isabelle Carrière
• Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent Carrière
• Laïka Blanc-Francard as Sylvie
• Anne Charrier as Marion Genet
• Nicolas Dozol as Walker
• Romain Levi as Stéphane Codron

“The Walking Dead: Dead City” brought back Morgan and Cohan as Negan and Maggie, respectively, as well as:

• Gaius Charles as Perlie Armstrong
• Zeljko Ivanek as The Croat 
• Mahina Napoleon as Ginny
• Logan Kim as Hershel Rhee
• Karina Ortiz as Amaia
• Jonathan Higginbotham as Tomasso

“The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” reunited Grimes and Hawthorne, and introduced:

• Pollyanna McIntosh as Jadis Stokes
• Terry O’Quinn as Major General Beale
• Lesley-Ann Brandt as Pearl Thorne
• Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes
• Craig Tate as Donald Okafor

Juliette Ménager (“Babel,” “Emily in Paris”) of Joule Casting Studio is the leading casting director behind “Daryl Dixon.” Christine Kromer (“Power,” “Poker Face”) of Kromer Casting is the main CD of “Dead City.” And Gohar Gazazyan of Bialy/Thomas & Associates—a veteran of the “Walking Dead” franchise—cast “The Ones Who Live.” Gazazyan also previously worked on “The Walking Dead” and “Fear the Walking Dead.”

When casting Michonne in the original series, comic creator and executive producer Kirkman told the Hollywood Reporter that Gurira brought “the power and strength” needed to take the character from page to screen. “Michonne is a very complex character who’s dealing with a lot of things and has a very intricate personality,” he shared. “There’s a lot to that role, and Danai, more than any other actress, showed us that she could exhibit that strength and show what an intense character she could be, and, at the same time, have that emotional core and be able to show a vulnerability to a certain extent that we don’t see much of but is definitely there. She really was the whole package.” 

Terry O’Quinn (“Lost,” “Alias”) had never watched “The Walking Dead” prior to joining “The Ones Who Live.” “I was informed that somebody was interested in me playing this character, and then I talked with [showrunner] Scott Gimple, and I said, ‘Tell me about him.’ And I had to say I didn’t watch ‘The Walking Dead,’ but I heard all about it, and I know that there were a lot of really avid fans,” he told Entertainment Weekly. 

“So I talked to several people without giving them any particulars, because I didn’t really know particulars. And they all said, ‘Oh, my God, you’re kidding. You’re so lucky. Yeah, go on it! Absolutely!’ And so I thought, Well, alright, that sounds good. And so I talked with [Gimple], and we had a long conversation where he told me plenty about ‘The Walking Dead’ and about the history,” O’Quinn added. “And so based basically on that talk with him, I said, ‘Sure, I would love to do it.’ ”

For actors who find themselves in the audition room, “Dead City” CD Kromer told Backstage she wants “actors to know that the time they’re in my room is theirs” by making the experience “fun and warm.” All she expects from actors in return are strong choices. “It’s an actor who owns the part, whether it’s one line or a series lead. Even if they’re not right for it, if they make it theirs and [bring] a breath of fresh air to it, I can see their talent and keep them in mind for something else,” she noted. “It’s all about timing, and people get bummed if they don’t book every role; but that’s sort of impossible. All you can do as an actor is really try to build a fan base of CDs and directors you’ve worked with and other actors and producers and writers. It’s much more important to do a good job than to stress about whether you actually get it.”

While “Dead City” filmed Season 2 in Boston earlier this year (with a premiere date set for 2025) and “The Ones Who Live” has no plans to return as of yet, “Daryl Dixon” Season 3 isn’t wasting any time. Forbes reported the next installment would begin production in—spoiler alert!—Spain in August 2024.

Currently, there are no open casting calls for lead or recurring roles in the “Walking Dead” franchise. But don’t count yourself out yet. Earlier in 2024, Kendall Cooper Casting posted a call for “Dead City” extras in the Boston area. The franchise also used Backstage in the past to cast “Fear the Walking Dead.”

For more in-depth insight into the casting process for each spinoff, peruse our guides:

• How to Get Cast on “The Walking Dead: Dead City”
• How to Get Cast on “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live”

Stand your ground. Yeun (Glenn Rhee, “The Walking Dead”) learned early on that CDs often saw him as nothing more than an Asian stereotype—and he wouldn’t stand for it. “For my first audition ever, in Chicago, the producers of this little show asked me to do an ’80s monologue, so I came in with Ferris Bueller’s opening monologue. They said, ‘That was good, but can you do an Asian accent?’ ” the actor told us, noting that they simply wanted to see his version of Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles.” “After that, they wanted to book me and I just refused,” Yeun emphasized. 

But he’s not discouraging any actor who’s willing to take what they can get—Yeun simply wants actors to know that their choices, whatever they might be, are valid. “All the power to anybody that takes work because getting work in this business is hard as hell,” he said. “So you get work and you take it. There’s nothing wrong with that. But for me, I just couldn’t do it. I knew I couldn’t do a good job because I just didn’t believe in it.”

Breathe (and go off-book). Kelsey Scott (Sierra, “Fear the Walking Dead: Passage”) knows how helpful breathing can be. “Take a moment and breathe. Whether that’s before an audition, when you’re learning the character, or when things are tumultuous in terms of your career, just take a second and breathe,” she told us. “I don’t know that I officially meditate, but I’ve certainly learned the power of just sitting in the moment before getting out into the ruckus of the world. That focus makes a lot of difference.”

Scott also finds going off-book essential to her concentration. “I want the words to be second nature; I don’t want to be trying to remember the line. After I’m off-book, then I’m really able to find out where the words are coming from, and I can get involved in the spaces between the words, the beats between the lines, because I think that’s actually where we say more,” she added.

Live your lines. Cohan prepares for auditions in an intricate, detailed fashion. “I like to take a script and only go one line at a time and create an entire universe with limited information, and then I add a bit more information. But what I really like to do is take a line and go through every possible iteration: how the other character would respond, what you might do, what you might say, and then go on to the next thing. And that information will either prove or disprove your theories,” she told us. 

The actor added, “It’s slow and it’s painstaking, but it gets better because it really exercises the peripheral parts of your creative brain. Sometimes I don’t have the patience and I have to just sit down, do the work. That’s the biggest part of it as an actor: You do it whether you want to or not, and then it’s there when you need it. That’s the part where you’re just like, ‘This isn’t just learning your lines; this is living your lines.’ ”

Keep an open mind. Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams, “The Walking Dead”) creates boundaries, explaining she values her imagination and doesn’t use her personal life to influence her character work. “A lot of my work is just creation—imaginative creation, empathetic creation,” she told us. “I go back to certain memories and reshape them and make them even more specific.” 

Martin-Green chooses to put an emphasis on both professional and internal training, as it’s the best way to ensure constant growth as an actor. “Everywhere you go, you need to be learning,” she said. “There’s a certain amount of training you need to go through internally, as well, because the person you are is the actor you are. I’ve realized that in such a big way the older I get. Whatever your flaws are as a person will be reflected in your acting. You have to develop yourself to be of greater service.”