‘The Walking Dead’ Season 3 Reveals New Original Character

With all the talk of 'The Walking Dead' season 3 and its page-to-screen adaptation of locations like the prison, and characters Michonne and the Governor, it's easy to forget that we'll see plenty of original characters as well starting with the October 14 premiere.  We've just learned that 'The Good Wife' and former 'Rubicon' star Dallas Roberts will shamble his way onscreen at some point, but who will he be playing?  Is he friend, foe, or just zombie-fodder?

Entertainment Weekly is reporting exclusively that actor Dallas Roberts has landed a role in 'The Walking Dead' season 3, portraying an original character not present in the Image comics on which the series is based.  Roberts will take the role of "Milton," a kind of adviser to David Morrissey's Governor character, who serves to investigate the undead's behavior and looks to help his leader better understand the world around them.

“Milton is the details guy,” says executive producer and series creator Robert Kirkman. “He’s the guy that works with the Governor, who is monitoring all situations and is trying to help the Governor make sense of this world that they’re living in. He’s not exactly a scientist, but he’s a smart guy that is trying to find out how zombies behave. Watching him do his little experiments is going to be a lot of fun.”

Show-runner Glen Mazzara further explained that he wanted to explore the various routes survivors might take to be useful in a world where the dead overrun the living, saying:

We were examining, ‘How do people survive in this apocalyptic world, and what can people contribute?’ And we didn’t think it was plausible that every single character we meet is an efficient zombie killer. We just didn’t buy that everyone we know would be active and deft enough to kill every walker.

We wanted to show how other people survive, and Dallas has come in and helped us establish that character. He just adds a lot of heart and humanity to Woodbury, which further complicates what that is. That is a real town with real people and real survivors. It’s not necessarily a group of bad guys.

Though Roberts' Milton shares no direct counterpart in the AMC comics, it's reasonable to assume he might fill certain roles of characters who don't quite make it through the translation.  The Governor of the books certainly had several right-hand men, though in particular Woodbury's Dr. Stevens seemed to have a certain intrigue for the science of the walking dead as well.

What say you?  Do you think adding a new character into the Woodbury mix for 'The Walking Dead' season 3 will keep everyone on their toes?  Check out a picture of Milton below, and tell us what you think in the comments!