Tom Payne (“Luck”, The Physician) has been cast as Paul Monroe (aka “Jesus”) for the sixth season of AMC’s “The Walking Dead“. This information came from ET after they published some set photos that showed Payne with long hair, a beanie, and sporting facial hair, just like Monroe, who was introduced in issue 91, does in the comics.
In 2014, Robert Kirkman participated in a Reddit AMA, where he explained why the character of Paul “Jesus” Monroe was gay, stating:
In my opinion there should be more awesome gay people in fiction because there are plenty of awesome gay people in real life. I want Jesus to be a character where his sexuality is as unimportant as Rick or other heterosexual characters. So we won’t focus on it constantly and it won’t be the focus of any big storylines for him… but he’ll make it with a dude every now and then… before going out and drop kicking zombies. He’s one of my current favorite characters.
Related: “The Walking Dead” Season 6 Synopsis and Images, Finally!
“Season 5 of ‘The Walking Dead’ saw our group being formed into consummate survivors by the world around them… nearly making some of them into villains. To make it as far as they have – to have persevered through all of their heartbreaking challenges – they have evolved into incredibly powerful people. But who have they become?
The last five episodes of Season 5 answered that question with Rick accepting an approach of unapologetic brutality in murdering Pete, a fellow Alexandrian.
Season 6 starts with Alexandria’s safety shattered by multiple threats. To make it, the people of Alexandria will need to catch up with our survivors’ hardness, while many of Rick’s people will need to take a step back from the violence and pragmatism they’ve needed to embrace. These reversals won’t happen easily, or without conflict.
But now, Rick’s group is fighting for something more than survival…
They’re fighting for their home, and they will defend that at any cost, against any threat, even if that threat comes from within.”
“The Walking Dead” is executive produced by Robert Kirkman, Showrunner Scott M. Gimple, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero and Tom Luse and stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Michael Cudlitz, Lennie James, Sonequa Martin-Green, Alanna Masterson, Christian Serratos, Josh McDermitt, Seth Gilliam, Tovah Feldshuh, Ross Marquand, Alexandra Breckenridge and Austin Nichols.
