The Walking Dead: Matthew Jeffers Credits Danai Gurira With Bringing Him Into Franchise

Matthew Jeffers, who plays Nat on The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, told ComicBook.com that he likely would never have had a chance to play the role if not for the intervention of co-star Danai Gurira. Speaking with us in support of the new series, Jeffers explained that he had starred alongside Gurira in Richard III and, in his words, 15th Century England brought him to post-apocalyptic Philadelphia, by way of a visit to the stage show by The Ones Who Live executive producer Scott Gimple.

Gurira has had quite a bit of influence on the direction of the new series, even writing an episode of the season, where she told us Scott Gimple told the crew to defer to her as de facto showrunner of the week.

"I did Shakespeare in the Park in 2022 with Danai Gurira, who played Richard III," Jeffers told ComicBook.com. "Really early on, we realized we worked really well together. We didn't have a ton of stage time, but the time that we had, it just clicked. I loved working with her, I think she felt a similar way, so when that show wrapped, a few months later I got a call from my agent, and they were like, 'You have this audition for this new spinoff of The Walking Dead,' and I realized later down the road that it was through that collaboration with Danai, that she wanted to continue the collaboration and invited Scott [Gimple] to see the show. He signed off and the whole team was like, 'Yeah, let's do this.' It was this beautiful confluence of events and really, the most beautiful part of acting is how things lead to more projects. 15th-century England led me to post-apocalyptic Philadelphia. That is, as an actor, that's the dream come true. You show up, you do good work, you take the work seriously, and you hope that that leads to another opportunity, so it's been great."

Per its official synopsis, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is "an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead... And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they've ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive -- or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?"

Walking Dead Universe Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple serves as showrunner and executive producer with Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead), and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon). The cast includes Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer) as Pearl Thorne, Matthew Jeffers (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Nat, Terry O'Quinn (Lost) as Major General Beale, and Pollyanna McIntosh (The Walking Dead) as Jadis.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres Sunday, February 25, on AMC and AMC+.