Corey Hawkins joins AMC’s The Walking Dead as Heath, a key character in the comic books.

The Straight Outta Compton star will have a recurring role on the show as Heath who is a member of the Alexandria Safe Zone, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Heath becomes a supply runner for the community, a close friend to Glenn, and is the love interest to Doctor Denise Cloyd. Denise has yet to be introduced in the AMC series yet but a recent casting call with her description has caused speculation that she will be in the sixth season of the show, according to Comic Book. 

Hawkins is the first official addition to season six of the show and joins other recent comic book characters that have been introduced like Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Aaron (Ross Marquand), according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Hawkins in character as Heath is pictured below, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. 

The series left off with Morgan (Lennie James) arriving at Alexandria where Rick and the gang are currently staying. In the comic books, the group is at Alexandria longer than any of their other locations. Despite Heath being introduced in issue 69 of Image Comics The Walking Dead, AMC’s The Walking Dead‘s fifth season aligned well with issue 79, as pointed out by Comic Book. 

In other Walking Dead news, it was revealed that the spinoff Fear The Walking Dead would at some point line up with the earlier seasons of The Walking Dead meaning it is not considered to be a prequel, according to Entertainment Weekly. The sixth season of the show will premiere on AMC in October and Fear The Walking Dead will premiere later this summer.