Minor Spoilers
Fox announced today that it would be picking up the series 24: Legacy, a follow-up/reboot to 24 that will be produced by Kiefer Sutherland, who played the lead in the original 24. While Kiefer Sutherland will be moving behind the camera for the reboot, Corey Hawkins will take the lead, playing Eric Carter.
However, while most publications are rightfully playing up the fact that Corey Hawkins is a break-out star from Straight Outta Compton and will appear in Kong: Skull Island next year, most are overlooking the fact that he’s already in an existing series, The Walking Dead.
It’s understandable why Hawkins’ role in The Walking Dead has been overlooked by many. Despite being cast in the series as a “key” regular to the show, Hawkins’ screentime has been nearly nonexistent this season. That probably had a lot to do with the fact that he was filming the pilot for 24: Legacy and Kong: Skull Island. In fact, Hawkins’ character, Heath, only appeared in three episodes in the entire season, though his character is an important one in Robert Kirkman’s source material (in fact, SPOILERS, that character is still alive in the comics).
However, now that 24: Legacy has been picked up, it seems unlikely that Hawkins/Heath will remain on The Walking Dead much longer; if he returns at all. His character was not a member of Negan’s line-up in the season finale, however, so we know that he’s not going to be killed off that way.
It will be interesting to see how the series works around Heath’s role in the comics. COMIC SPOILERS: They have already worked around his relationship with Denise, who was based on a comic’s character of the same name. In the series, of course, Denise ends up with Tara instead of Heath, and ultimately, she dies the way that Abraham did in the comics. The storylines from the source material remain constant, but as we have seen, the characters are often interchangeable.
