More familiar faces will have expanded roles when "The Walking Dead" returns for season eight.
After a season that killed off four series regulars, "The Walking Dead" has promoted three cast members for its upcoming installment. Katelyn Nacon, Pollyanna McIntosh and Steven Ogg will all play bigger roles when the zombie drama returns later this year. Nacon portrays the role of a teenage Alexandrian named Enid, who has a close relationship with Carl. One of the newest additions in the show, McIntosh plays the junk yard scavengers leader Jadis. Ogg is best known for his role of Negan's right-hand man, Simon.
Season 7 featured the death of four main characters: Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), Spencer (Austin Nichols), Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green). The casting news come as season eight is set to explore the "All-Out War" arc from Robert Kirkman's comics of the same name, which serves as the show's source material. In the said arc, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the rest of his group engage in a huge battle against Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his community, the Saviors. A remix of the comics shows Rick fighting Jadis' group as well.
Showrunner Scott Gimple previously told Variety that the next season will see Rick and company doing everything in their power to preserve the civilization they have built. He pointed out that Rick and his group's fight is not only for themselves.
"The Governor just wanted them dead. Negan would be happy if everyone was alive and well and working for him. There's a very basic political idea at play here," Gimple explained, adding, "They want to live in a fair world instead of having it just be Negan's. To that end, that idea feels to me like the beginning of civilization is at stake, this new civilization they want to build rather than live this strange half-life serving a despot."
The eighth season of "The Walking Dead" premieres September 2017 on AMC.
