We lost another member of The Walking Dead gang during the Season 5 midseason premiere on Feb. 8. And yes, you may still be in mourning, but there are some newcomers about to join the show (spoilers ahead), including Ross Marquand, who is rumored to be Aaron on The Walking Dead . As Entertainment Weekly stated in their report of his casting, all signs point to Marquand portraying Aaron — a recruiter for the Alexandria Safe-Zone in the comics the show is based on. At this point, it will be more surprising if Marquand is not Aaron, but as he is set to appear on the Feb. 15 episode of The Walking Dead, "Them," we should (maybe?) know soon enough.
In the comics, Aaron is a good guy (yay!). He is part of the Alexandria Safe-Zone and goes out to get other good guys (like Rick!) to join the community. In the comics, he watches groups of people from afar to see if they will be good for the walled-in haven. On The Walking Dead wikia, they describe Aaron's first encounter with Rick and company after Aaron has been watching them on their way to Washington D.C.:
Impressed with what he saw, he later approached the group, surprising both Rick and Abraham Ford. Afraid of an attack, Rick punched Aaron, knocking him out, and ties Aaron up. After regaining consciousness, Aaron invites the survivors to 'audition for membership' into the Safe-Zone.
Inquisitr reported that "Them" will show someone giving the gang a case of water with a note attached saying "From a friend." Although I would be incredibly leery of a gesture like that (let's be real — in the zombie apocalypse, I'd be leery of everything), if Marquand's character does turn out to be the "friend" Aaron, I'm pretty pumped. Especially since Aaron becomes an actual close friend of Rick's in the comics — and any friend of Rick's is a friend of mine.
One of the reasons the rumor mill is so intent on saying that Marquand's mysterious character will be Aaron is because on Talking Dead in December 2014, creator Robert Kirkman said a "very prominent gay character from the comics" would be joining the show, which likely refers to Aaron, and keeping a character under wraps, the way Marquand's has been, suggests they'll be important.
Just because we are expecting to see Marquand in "Them" does not mean that he will come face-to-face with Rick (or anyone else) in his first episode. And speaking of faces, Marquand may not be too familiar of an actor to most people (he did portray Paul Newman in an episode of another AMC show, Mad Men). But he does master impressions as a part of The Impression Guys, a show on YouTube's SoulPancake channel.
Uh, that was amazing. I'm loving Marquand already. As long as he has talent (which he evidently does), who cares if we've seen him in other stuff before? He's a skilled impersonator, which I'm a total sucker for. Now Marquand could be playing an original character not found in the comic books, but right now, the hype about him being Aaron is too much to deny. I just hope he makes a good impression (har, har) on The Walking Dead audience — and on Mr. Grimes himself.
