'Walking Dead' Season 6 Spoilers: Who Is Heath? New Comic Book Character To Be Introduced

Fans of “The Walking Dead” comic-book and television series have reason to be excited about Season 6 of the TV show: It has officially cast an actor to play one of the more popular characters in Robert Kirkman’s written source material.

AMC’s hit zombie drama has cast Corey Hawkins, the star of the forthcoming NWA biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” for a recurring role in the new season, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The series producers even released an image of Hawkins in character during production of Season 6:

Fans of the comic books may recognize Hawkins’ clothes and makeup as those of the character Heath in the source material. Although it’s unclear what the creative minds behind the popular show have planned for the character, his comic-book counterpart has been around for quite some time. In the comic books, he’s a resident of the Alexandria Safe-Zone. He’s a supply runner for the town and eventually partners with Glenn (Steven Yeun). It would make sense for Heath to continue to be a supply runner in the series as [SPOILER ALERT] the end of Season 5 saw the Alexandria supply team’s numbers dwindle down significantly, leaving Glenn the only real runner left for the entire town.

Hawkins is the first new cast member to arrive for the next season of “The Walking Dead,” as CinemaBlend noted. However, odds are good he won’t be the last one to join Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his gang of survivors. A casting notice last month teased the arrivals of both Heath and one other new character, code-named “Tucker.” There’s no telling whether Tucker will end up being someone recognizable to the comic-book readers, but E Online reported that casting directors are looking for “a hard-worker tough guy who values fairness.”

“The Walking Dead” returns to AMC in October. Meanwhile, fans can check out some of the news and teasers centered on the spinoff of the show, “Fear the Walking Dead.”