Giant Freakin Robot

Anybody remember that barely publicized AMC series, The Walking Dead? I think we may have covered it a time or two. More than a week after a show’s season finale and I usually forget the show exists. Maybe you guys have a better memory than I do. The above production still, the first from the show’s upcoming fourth season, needs no context though. It’s Rick standing there with a look on his face that crosses between pensive and perplexed while someone dressed in an oversized suit jacket stands out of focus in the background. I can’t really tell if that’s a living person or not. It seems like only a zombie would be standing ominously like that, but zombies usually don’t mix and match their wardrobe.

“You know a fish can hear you thinking just before you sneeze.”

The gang behind the Bad Lip Reading YouTube page never fail to provoke a shame-inducing giggle session. They’ve dubbed surreal voiceovers on such esteemed subjects as Twilight, The Amazing Spider-Man, politics, and the NFL. Now that they’ve taken a bite out of AMC’s The Walking Dead, we can all experience this series with dialogue far more interesting than what we actually got to hear each week. Throw your bloody tomatoes, haters.

A few days ago, there was some talk that actor Lawrence Gilliard Jr. would join the cast of AMC’s The Walking Dead for season four. It was rumored that he’d be playing an original character (like Merle & Daryl Dixon, and T-Dog) named Roy Stark, a “former army medic who is deeply haunted by his past.” As it turns out, Gilliard is now confirmed to be a regular cast member of The Walking Dead, but he will play the character of Bob Stookey from Robert Kirkman’s comics instead.

According to TVLine, Lawrence Gilliard Jr.’s character will still meet the same general description as above. Although Bob Stookey is deeply troubled, he will have a charming, confident, and self-deprecating public face. In the comics, Bob Stookey is an alcoholic medic and a new addition to the Woodbury community. He saved the Governor’s life after Michonne tortured him and left him for dead.

Gilliard Jr. will join Chad Coleman, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Emily Kinney, who play Tyreese, his sister Sasha, and Hershel’s daughter Beth, respectively, in the fourth-season cast. Gilliard Jr. famously played the role of D’Angelo Barksdale on the acclaimed HBO drama The Wire. He has also appeared in numerous TV crime dramas, including Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street, and New York Undercover.

While the third-season finale of The Walking Dead was lackluster, it will be interesting to see the show’s new direction with staff writer Scott Gimple as the series’ newly appointed showrunner. Honestly, it looks like we may get more of the same in season four, only with more zombies.

The Walking Dead season four will premiere sometime in October 2013.

Without going into spoilers, the third-season finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead left things in such a way that there could be plenty of new characters next season. So far, the upcoming fourth season has bumped Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman), Sasha (Sonnequa Martin-Green), and Beth (Emily Kinney) up to series regulars, and word on the street was that they were casting a character named Roy Stark.

iDigitalTimes now reports that Lawrence Gilliard Jr., a veteran of HBO’s The Wire, is in final negotiations to take the part. Though the show is based on the comic books by Robert Kirkman, Roy Stark appears to be a wholly original character. He joins the likes of Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker), Milton (Dallas Roberts), and T-Dog (Irone Singleton) as characters created specifically for the show. If Gilliard does indeed wind up on The Walking Dead, he’ll be the second veteran of The Wire. Coleman played ex-con and boxing enthusiast Cutty.

There isn’t much known about Roy Stark except that he’s a “former army medic who is deeply haunted by his past.” Really, that’s the best you can come up with? That’s such a bland, generic description, and I really hope there’s more to him than that. But this is The Walking Dead we’re talking about here, so there might not be. I hope this isn’t another case of the show half-heartedly attempting to carve out a new character when there are perfectly serviceable, and more complete characters—like Abraham—that already exist in the comics.