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‘The Walking Dead’: Ryan Hurst Shares a BTS Sneak Peak at His Transformation into Beta

On Monday, The Walking Dead fandom was totally rocked when news broke that Sons of Anarchy alum Ryan Hurst would be joining the television series’ cast. Not even 24 hours after, Hurst was already suiting up (or sliming up) for his new recurring role.

Hurst will be joining the popular AMC series in the role of Beta, a pivotal villainous character from the comic book source materials. Beta is the second in command in a group known as The Whisperers. The group is known for wearing walker skin (You read that correctly. We said walker SKIN.) in order to blend in with roaming herds and communicates through faint whispers which, to someone not paying close attention, simply sound like walker groans.

On Tuesday, Hurst posted some super cool behind-the-scenes photos showing the very beginnings of his transformation into character. From the looks of the photos, we have to wonder if Hurst is even going to be recognizable on screen! In the below pictures posted to Hurst’s Twitter account, his entire face is completely covered (beard and all) in a green goopy prosthetic base. No doubt, this is the very beginnings of Beta’s walker skin suit being constructed. Hurst captioned the first photo jokingly by posting, “Found a cool new barber shop today.”

Check out two behind-the-scenes photos below.


Hurst is joining The Walking Dead universe at a time when the series is undergoing some major changes. New showrunner Angela Kang has confirmed there will be a jump in time during the ninth season. We’ll leap a few years into the future and pick up with the series’ characters trying to rebuild their lives.

The series is also facing two major character exits in the ninth season. Series star Andrew Lincoln (who plays Rick Grimes) confirmed his speculated exit from the series was, in fact, happening. Additionally, Lauren Cohan’s future on series is being left “open-ended” as she has begun working on her new show, ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier.

The Walking Dead will return to AMC with new episodes starting on October 7th.

Are you pumped to see Ryan Hurst take on the role of Beta in The Walking Dead? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.