Cancellation of 24: Legacy could mean expanded role for Corey Hawkins on The Walking Dead
By Corey Smith
Corey Hawkins’ The Walking Dead character, Heath, has remained a minor player thus far on the series. But could the failure of 24: Legacy turn out to be good fortune for The Walking Dead?
Not too long ago, The Walking Dead star, Corey Hawkins, appeared on the cusp of stardom. After his critically acclaimed role in Straight Out of Compton as Dr. Dre, Hawkins was cast in a supporting role on The Walking Dead as Alexandria survivor Heath. When Hawkins was subsequently cast as the lead in FOX’s 24 reboot, 24: Legacy it appeared that the sky was the limit for the young actor. The cancellation of 24: Legacy led Forbes to speculate whether Hawkin’s Walking Dead character might be given a bigger arc come season 8. Not so fast though, says this Walking Dead fan.
First, full disclosure; we didn’t even realize that was Hawkins playing Heath. The glasses and the hair might have made it hard to recognize Hawkins, but the larger reason concerns screen time. Hawkins just hasn’t been a consistent factor on The Walking Dead as of yet. Heath’s biggest contribution to the show was his appearance in the Tara-centric episode that led to the discovery of the Oceanside community. Heath has popped up here and there since, but Hawkins hasn’t been given much material to work with. With war looming with Negan, that could be set to change though.
Photo Credit: AMC
As Forbes notes, Heath has both a much larger presence in The Walking Dead comics and is still among the living despite the comics being years ahead of the show. Forbes posits that Heath could take on a larger role in his comic inspiration, and even lobbies for his promotion to series regular, but that seems unlikely for several reasons (at least during season 8).
First and foremost, AMC already promoted several actors to series regulars for season 8. And although the show is still currently filming, it seems unlikely that during filming producers would decide to promote any actor to series regular. Scripts have been written, plots are being acted out. Entire character arcs are not typically changed during the middle of filming.
Photo Credit: AMC
As Hawkins is unlikely to be promoted to series regular, that means Heath could just as likely end up a casualty in the war with Negan as he could receive some sort of expanded role.
More from Show Snob
- The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
- Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
- Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
- Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
- Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”
Producers have not shown a belief that they are beholden to the comic series with major characters, let alone minor ones. Heath’s continued survival in the comics likely has no weight in producer’s plans for the character.
If however, Hawkins is looking to stage a comeback after the 24 disaster, as one of the highest rated shows on TV, The Walking Dead is a perfect place to accomplish that. And while certainly there is a big gap between series regular and the once every season appearances Heath was seemingly making, Hawkins could still land somewhere in the middle.
Appearing in say six episodes would be a huge leap for the character, and could still provide Hawkins with sufficient material to add some shine back to his star. Either way, we are hopeful AMC recognizes Hawkin’s prodigious talents before the actor moves on.
The Walking Dead returns this October.