Season nine of The Walking Dead has been nothing short of surprises. After Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) “death,” the show continued with six-year time jump that brought out some changes and confusion. One, in particular, is the romantic pairing between Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam). The two took to the Talking Dead aftershow to discuss how the sudden relationship came to be.
Gilliam was told of a possible love interest by showrunner Angela Kang but not with who he thought it would be.
“[Director-producer] Greg Nicotero actually said something — Christian and I were doing an event in Europe, and he said, ‘You two should get to know each other,’” Gilliam said.
“I was like, ‘What? What does that mean? That’s kind of cryptic,'” continued Gilliam. “And then when I spoke to [showrunner] Angela Kang about what was gonna happen for Gabriel during the season, she mentioned there was going to be a love interest, and it turned out she talked about Jadis the whole time, Jadis-slash-Anne. And she never mentioned Rosita. So I didn’t really know that that was happening until I got the script.”
Serratos had spoken to Kang on what she should expect this season involving the Rosita character.
“And then she asked me, she goes, ‘We’re considering touching on that storyline from the comic book, we’re talking about a few people, who do you think it could be? What do you think?’ And I was really excited to get to kind of contribute, and [Seth’s] name was brought up, and I go, ‘That’s really interesting,’” said Serratos.
Both Gilliam and Serratos clearly didn’t expect anything romantic to take place between them. With a lot of other factors playing into their relationship, Rosita being pregnant with Siddiq’s child and Eugene head over heels in love with Rosita, the story becomes a bit complicated. However, Serratos appreciates sharing the screen with Gilliam, who she claims really sets the bar.
“And this is one of my favorite things as an actor, is working with people that I consider better than me in a lot of ways, and how can I learn, and will they elevate me? And in our show, we do, we all push each other, and we all want to be the best that we can be, and working with you,” Serratos said to Gilliam, “somebody I think is a really incredible actor — pushed me to be a better actor, so thank you.”
As the Whispers look to wreak havoc ahead, tragedy will surely ensue within the communities and its people.
Watch The Walking Dead Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.