The Walking Dead Just Cast Two Major Characters From The Comics

The end is seriously nigh for AMC's "The Walking Dead." The long-running zombie drama is officially set to kick off its eleventh and final season in a matter of weeks. The series clearly has a lot of narrative ground to cover in the home stretch, as matters took a turn for the worse for Team Alexandria as season 10 came to a close — even after the gang survived the truly brutal war with The Whisperers. 

After being kept largely in the dark about Season 11, we finally got a look at what's ahead for the Alexandrians via the full Season 11 trailer AMC dropped during San Diego Comic-Con's recent virtual event. That trailer largely kept to the subway tunnel scene teased a couple of weeks back. The full trailer also ended by confirming (via a brilliant VHS orientation-style video clip) the masked guards who captured Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Princess (Paola Lázaro), Ezekiel (Kahry Payton), and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) late in Season 10 were, in fact, minions of The Commonwealth.

That clip also confirmed not just the arrival of one of "The Walking Dead" comics' iconic characters, but the actor who will portray them. We've also learned who's been cast as the boss, aka the last of "The Walking Dead" big bads. Here's who will play Lance Hornsby and Pamela Milton in Season 11 of "The Walking Dead."  

The character welcoming all comers to The Commonwealth in that trailer was Lance Hornsby, known to fans of "The Walking Dead" comics as the smarmy, prideful second in command of the gated community. And yes, the face of the man portraying Hornsby in the trailer will no doubt be most familiar to film and television fans who err on the side of indie fare. It belongs to the great Josh Hamilton, who may actually be the most egregiously underrated actor of this, or any era.

Hamilton has been in the acting game for decades, cultivating a staggering list of credits that include 90s staples "With Honors," and Noah Baumbach's "Kicking and Screaming," and dozens of other celebrated projects like "The Bourne Identity," "Margaret," "J. Edgar," "The Meyerwitz Stories," and Bo Burnham's beloved coming-of-age drama, "Eight Grade." Hamilton is no stranger to the small screen either, having appeared in "Sex and the City," "American Horror Story," "Madame Secretary," "Ray Donavan," and Netflix's "13 Reasons Why." Hamilton is arguably one of the biggest gets "The Walking Dead" casting team has ever delivered, and his presence alone elevates Season 11 to must-see status even for those not exceedingly well-steeped in the show's lore. Just like the rest of you, we cannot wait to see what the actor brings to such a complex character.

Fans of "The Walking Dead" source material know that the duplicitous, politicking Lance Hornsby is far from the worst of The Commonwealth's leadership team. His boss, Pamela Milton, is lining up to be one of Season 11's biggest bad, with her status as the Governor of The Commonwealth understandably putting her at odds with the folks from Alexandria. Like most leaders in "The Walking Dead" realm, however, Milton is mostly just trying to do what's best for herself and her people. In the books, she makes some very damning decisions, and it is her own son Sebastian who eventually kills Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln on the show).

However things play out on "The Walking Dead," viewers will be more than familiar with the actor playing Milton, as she's been a mainstay on screens big and small for a few decades. Laila Robins got her big break playing Steve Martin's wife in the 1980s classic, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," and she has since racked up an impressive list of credits, with highlights including stints on lauded HBO series "The Sopranos," "In Treatment," and "Bored to Death," and a memorable ark on Showtime's "Homeland." Of late, she's turned heads on both Amazon Studio's "The Boys," and NBC's "The Blacklist," and will no doubt bring some seriously dodgy energy to her upcoming role on "The Walking Dead."