[This story contains major spoilers through the first two episodes of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.]
In the earliest days of The Walking Dead, no one was safe. Not even beloved comic book characters. Just ask Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn), who survives dozens of issues in Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s comics, only to die unexpectedly in the show’s second season.
But as the series wore on, it felt increasingly unlikely to lose any major players from the board, a notion that contributed to Christian Serratos requesting to be written out in the series finale. Rosita notwithstanding, the late stages of The Walking Dead were fairly easy on even the supporting cast. Gone were the days where a fan-favorite antihero like Michael Rooker’s Merle could bite the dust after so much build-up, or even moves as shocking as Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham’s (Michael Cudlitz) twin executions in the season seven premiere, divisive as that story decision was.
Fast-forward to now and the Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, the zombie franchise’s show of the moment. Given that its central premise rests on the dynamic between Andrew Lincoln’s Rick and Danai Gurira’s Michonne, the odds of losing either one of those characters before the end of the series feel incredibly low. But brilliantly fleshed-out characters, three-dimensional people who feel like they have entire seasons worth of story in them? Absolutely fair game once again, after years of this not being the case.
The series premiere established the show’s “no one is safe” rules in the closing moments, with the death of Lieutenant Colonel Okafor (Craig Tate), the CRM soldier who imbues Rick — who loses his hand (bringing to screen one of the biggest milestones from the comics) — with a sense of purpose and a clear mission to rise the army’s ranks and take control from the top. Okafor could have easily extended through the entire season, only to suffer a gruesome death out of nowhere, when a group of people assaulted his helicopter. And not just any group of people, but a duo who come into focus in The Ones Who Live episode two: the sword-swinging Michonne herself, as well as her new best friend Nat, played by Matthew August Jeffers.
Emphasis on “played,” because Nat, yet another character so full of life, is also dead by the end of episode two. And if viewers are devastated by Nat’s death, just think about how Gurira feels.
“I met Matt when I was playing Richard the Third in Shakespeare in the Park,” Gurira tells The Hollywood Reporter about how she connected with Jeffers, the actor who would go on to play Michonne’s traveling companion. “I sort of decided then and there that he was going to play Nat.”
Gurira, who produces the series alongside Lincoln in addition to starring, also knew that Nat would not be long for this world.
“We have much less time on this show to do what The Walking Dead normally does,” she explains. “It’s true to the premise: not everyone lives in this world. That’s what was so exciting about finding actors like Matt, and the journey of his narrative in episode two.”
The episode follows Michonne’s effort to find and rescue Rick, taking place over a large swath of time, including a long period where she and her fellow traveler lock themselves down after a brutal nerve gas attack. They spend a year together, recovering, learning the ins and outs of one another. An entire season’s worth of narrative is poured into their dynamic, though it only lasts a single episode, as Nat (not to mention Michonne’s other close companions) meets his maker before the hour’s end.
In working with Jeffers on stage, Gurira knew he was the right actor to take on Nat, though she couldn’t tell him right away: “I know we have a process that we have to go through before I can tell him I’m going to fight to make him this character. But I didn’t have to fight. He was fantastic. And then bringing him into the fold, and seeing someone who doesn’t have a lot of time [to make an impact]. He has one episode, right? It wasn’t even an entire episode to endear himself to us and to create this astounding character. And he did.”
“That’s what I love about this show,” she continues. “These astounding actors, who are sometimes not very well known, but should be, and hopefully will now be, get in front of that camera, and they bring it. A whole other realm comes to life through them, and everyone falls in love with them… and then, we kill them!”
The six-episode season of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC and AMC+. Head here for a refresher on Rick and Michonne’s story.
