Jon Bernthal will put down his guns as The Punisher to return to his old stomping grounds at The Walking Dead in season 9….
Shane Walsh is back from the dead…well sort of.
Jon Bernthal, who portrayed Rick Grimes’ best friend Shane for the first two seasons of The Walking Dead, is set to return for at least one episode during season 9.
Bernthal was spotted near the set of where The Walking Dead films in Georgia and it was later confirmed that the star of the Netflix series The Punisher would be returning for a cameo appearance in the upcoming season.
On the show, Bernthal’s character died at the end of season 2 after he betrayed Rick and ended up being knifed in the gut before being resurrected as a zombie, who then had to be put down by Carl Grimes. Bernthal did make a brief appearance in The Walking Dead season 3 during a hallucination but otherwise he hasn’t shown up on the series since then.
There’s no word on how Bernthal will be appearing on The Walking Dead season 9 but it’s likely to be another dream/hallucination scenario or perhaps a flashback. It’s possible that Bernthal’s return has been facilitated as part of the story that will write out Rick Grimes as Andrew Lincoln is leaving the series during season 9.
Bernthal’s return comes at a huge moment for the future of The Walking Dead with Lincoln set to exit this season and actress Lauren Cohan rumored to be on her way out as well after booking a new series called Whiskey Cavalier that has been picked up to series by ABC.
H/T: TVLine
