‘The Walking Dead’ season 5 spoilers: Seth Gilliam on his Father Gabriel surprise

One of the biggest additions to “The Walking Dead” season 5 is Seth Gilliam in the role of Father Gabriel, but one of the funniest things that is coming out now is that when he first tried out for the show, the “Wire” alum had no idea who he was even playing at all.

Gilliam spoke out for the first time about this new role to Entertainment Weekly as a part of their new cover story, and he explained what the process was like for him (and quite possibly other actors on the show) before ultimately landing the part:

“I actually did not realize I was reading for the role of Father Gabriel during the casting process. The sides were for a school guidance counselor named Michael, who had an issue with a couple of his students. I had not seen the show before I was cast on the show. So I just thought, Okay, I guess they’ve discovered some guy who’s holed up at a school or something like that and was carrying around this horrible exchange that he had with his students.”

Gilliam also said that he binge-watched the entire first three seasons of the show on Netflix over the span of just a few short days, and then caught up on the fourth while down in Atlanta preparing for the show. While he has allowed himself to learn about the series’ past, he has not read many of the comics other than the one introducing his character. Why? He doesn’t want his impression of the show to be warped by that, since the two are in many ways very different.

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Photo: AMC (via EW)