Rubén Blades And Patricia Reyes Spíndola Join ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ — But What Will The Walkers Be Called?

According to news source Deadline, Rubén Blades has just joined the cast of AMC’s much anticipated new series, Fear The Walking Dead. This show will be a companion series to their hugely popular series, The Walking Dead. Blades will play a character called Daniel, apparently the father of previously announced cast member Mercedes Mason, who plays a character called Ofelia. Little is know yet about how Ofelia and Daniel will cross paths with the other main cast members when Fear The Walking Dead premieres in late summer.

Something very interesting to note, though, is the fact IMDb has these latest castings of Daniel and Ofelia as starring in seven episodes of Fear The Walking Dead, whereas the original core cast of Madison (Kim Dickens), Travis (Cliff Curtis), Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Nick (Frank Dillane), Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie) and Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez) has so far only been billed for six episodes. Perhaps this means AMC will be doing episodes concentrating on just a small cast like they do in The Walking Dead? Only time will tell. Of course, Episode 7 will be the very first episode in Fear The Walking Dead Season 2, which is expected to premiere in 2016.

Another interesting new cast announcement is for actress Patricia Reyes Spíndola. She will reportedly be playing a character named Griselda Salazar. So far, the only news sites that are reporting this latest casting are Spanish speaking outlets, but IMDb does have the actress listed for five episodes so far in Fear The Walking Dead. Once again, if this casting news is correct, it looks like we have another pretty major character announcement.

On top of this rush of new character castings, it looks like AMC will be veering away from everything we associate with The Walking Dead — including what the zombies will be called. In The Walking Dead, the most common term used is “walker,” since creator Robert Kirkman created The Walking Dead world in a universe where zombie movies didn’t exist. While the terms “walkers,” “rotters,” and “roamers” are common terms, they are ones which have developed over time due to what is known about their characteristics. In Season 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead, there were more variants on the names used for the undead, so it seems likely this will be the case for Fear The Walking Dead, where it really will be the earliest days possible and little is known about these people. According to Fear The Walking Dead showrunner Dave Erickson, though, the term or terms used will hopefully be a surprise.

“I’m going to surprise you. All I’ll say is this: I love the fact that in the comic and the original show, the vernacular, the language, varies depending on your community, your city, your state, whether it’s walkers or biters. The names that we’ll play with are kind of specific to what our characters experience as the story begins. Which is, if it seems to be a virus, it’s a contagion, are they infected? It will be in that world at first, and then I think it will approach something a little bit more apocalyptic. That will coalesce as the season plays out.”

What do you think a good term for the freshly turned undead would be in AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead? Let us know your ideas by commenting below!

[Image credits: AMC / Getty Images / Wikipedia]