‘The Walking Dead’ Season 5 Ups Trio to Series Regulars, New Details on Terminus Ringleader
Though it won't air until the fall, 'The Walking Dead' season 5 is already posing fans with loads of questions, especially after Sunday's season 4 finale that saw Rick's group make it to Terminus and realize a little too late what was really going on. Keeping in mind the events of the episode, "A," AMC upped three members of the cast to series regular roles for season 5, that of Rosita, Tara and Terminus baddie Gareth.
(Be warned of spoilers from the finale moving forward.) According to the network, Alanna Masterson (Tara), Christian Serratos (Rosita) and Andrew J. West (Gareth, the man who first welcomed Rick, Michonne, Carl and Daryl to Terminus) have all been promoted to series regulars for 'The Walking Dead' season 5. Since Masterson and Serratos both debuted their characters earlier in the season, with Masterson debuting the earliest, both of their characters have since upped their involvement in the story -- Tara becoming Glenn's partner in arms and Rosita actually speaking up and becoming a complementing voice to Abraham's trio.
As for Gareth, his promotion can only mean bad things for the group. The season 4 finale saw Rick's group (now including Daryl) finally reaching the supposed sanctuary but soon finding themselves under gunfire before being stripped of their weapons and locked in a train car that dubbed as a Terminus holding tank -- and Gareth was leading the charge!
Speaking to EW, executive producer Robert Kirkman teased of Gareth, "He is a very interesting character and he is based on someone in the comics. So there are some pieces of him in the comic book series that you could dig out if you were a bit of a detective, and we’ll definitely reveal more next season. He’s a big character."
Elsewhere, Kirkman told THR, "Seeing Gareth and Rick and the people of Terminus and our survivors go head to head is going to be interesting. There is a very deep, dark and storied history to Terminus and how these people came to be that will be revealed in season 5." Earlier, he also acknowledged the rumor going around suggesting that the people behind Terminus are cannibals, similar to the comic iterations of the "Hunters." Although Kirkman would neither confirm nor deny their inclusion on the AMC series, he did say that the cannibal storyline was "certainly one of" the possible treatments.
'The Walking Dead' season 4 finale hit a ratings high for AMC, and hopefully now with all this teasery information, the series will do so again with the currently unset season 5 premiere this fall.