The Walking Dead mid-season finale ended on a shocking note with the death of Jesus, after he was murdered by one of the Whisperers, who’ll take their place as the new main villains of the show when it returns in February. As for actor Tom Payne, who played Jesus, he obviously won’t be returning to the series that he’s been a part of since season 6, but he’s not ruling out a possible guest spot down the road.
How would that be possible though when his character has just snuffed it? Well, Payne pointed out to Good Day L.A. that the sizeable time jump that came after season 9’s fifth episode means that there’s a lot of story to be explored in flashback, which leaves the door open for him to cameo later on.
“There is a six year time jump between Episode 5 and Episode 6, so you maybe might see what happened with Jesus in those six years. As far as this point in the timeline goes, at this point, he’s done-zo.”
Showrunner Angela Kang has said that it was a difficult decision to kill Jesus off, but the writing team ultimately decided someone needed to die to show how big a threat the Whisperers were and Paul Rovia was the best fit. The decision might also have had something to do with Payne’s dissatisfaction with his role, as he recently revealed that he’s felt “frustrated” with Jesus’ arc and limited screen time over the past few years.
At least he’s open to returning to the part for a one-off flashback at some point, though. And that could just happen, too, as Kang has promised that the six-year period will be explored in episodes to come. In particular, the mystery of the X-shaped scars that Michonne and Daryl have now will be explained. Kang teased that they’re tied into a very traumatic experience for Michonne, specifically, but we don’t know much more than that at the moment.
With any luck, though, we’ll uncover some more information when The Walking Dead season 9 continues on February 10th.