A familiar face is joining The Walking Dead, AMC’s hit show about the zombie apocalypse. Fiction is mirroring reality with actress Hilarie Burton (One Tree Hill) joining the cast. She’s slated to play the wife of her real life husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s (Grey’s Anatomy) character Negan in season ten via Entertainment Weekly. 

Jeffrey Dean Morgan first appeared on The Walking Dead in season six and was moved up to series regular in season seven. He’s been starring in it ever since as Negan, one of the several survivors of the zombie apocalypse who’s favorite weapon to fight with is his baseball bat covered in barbed wire. 

Burton was announced Tuesday to be playing Lucille, the deceased wife of Negan. Prior to all the death and zombies, Negan was married to Lucille and she had been diagnosed with cancer. The storyline is based off of The Walking Dead comics written by Rober Kirkman. According to Entertainment Weekly, while Lucille is dying of cancer Negan begins an affair which Lucille finds out about. She passes as the zombies begin to arrive and he names his prized baseball bat after her.  

With the news breaking, Burton took to Twitter to announce her upcoming role. Read the tweet below: 

Been pretty hard to keep this a secret. 💕
But I love working with @JDMorgan . I love watching him become #Negan and take on that swagger. And I love the @TheWalkingDead family. They’ve been a part of our family for ages and I’m so grateful for their kindness. Xoxo #hereslucille https://t.co/9tRh7NB8WY

— Hilarie Burton Morgan (@HilarieBurton) November 3, 2020

Season ten of The Walking Dead added six new additional episodes in response to COVID-19. The show had gone on a long hiatus, shutdown due to complications regarding the pandemic. The episode that was meant to be the season finale aired October 4, 2020, but it’s no longer the conclusion to season ten. The six additional episodes will air sometime in 2021 and Burton will appear as Lucille in one of them. 

With season ten ending after these newly planned episodes, The Walking Dead will completely close its doors with season eleven. The final season will be its longest season yet consisting of twenty four episodes and it’s planned to air sometime in 2022.