The Walking Dead’s Tom Payne Would Reprise His Role As Jesus Under One Condition – Looper

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published the night of Jesus’ death on “The Walking Dead,” Tom Payne revealed his frustrations with the show and his character’s storyline but expressed that he would be open to returning as the character in the future. Of course, this would be under the condition that the story is good and actually explores his character in a more active way.

“I would never say never, but I would only want to do it if it was good material,” Payne said. “I don’t have any interest in being there in the background, or showing up just for the sake of doing it. I would love to tell a story about Jesus’ beginnings or whatever happened in those six years, and there’s a lot of scope for that. If the material is strong, I would be interested.”

Payne’s reasoning here makes a lot of sense. While “The Walking Dead” employed a large cast of ever-shifting characters, not everyone gets their time to shine, and some story arcs fade to the background or are never actually wrapped up at all. A prequel centered around Jesus wouldn’t erase his untimely death, but it would perhaps at least return some of the depth that the show arguably robs him of. Whether or not that’s likely to ever happen remains to be seen. But with other spin-offs on the way, including one centered on Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) that’s set to air in 2024, anything is certainly possible.