What Does Father Gabriel Arrest Mean For The Walking Dead?
By Josh Hill
Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel on The Walking Dead, was arrested this week so what does that mean for his future on the show?
This week has been a rough one for actor Seth Gilliam, who was arrested on a slew of charges following being pulled over by police. He was arrested and released on bond, but it’s looking like the series he works on will have to determine what to do with him and how this arrest factors into production time on The Walking Dead.
Really, this all comes down to how much he’s going to be featured in this new season of The Walking Dead and what the arrest means as far as his availability for shooting.
If Gilliam isn’t available for shooting, then the series might have to consider re-writing the script on the fly and writing Father Gabriel out of the episodes that he’s in. Then again, if he’s not required for a lot of the season — or at least the early half of the season — then this might not be that big of a deal.
We’re also not considering the fact that this whole offense might not take up too much of Gilliam’s time as he was released on bail when he was arrested and seems to be out and about since then. If his time is largely freed up, then he’ll be able to shoot and get episodes done before dealing with whatever legal issues he has.
Then again, if the producers of the show are less than pleased with this little legal tangle, they could end up cutting Gilliam loose and either re-casting the character or killing him off. That would be going against the comics at this point, but no one said that the show has to follow the books.
Just look at Game of Thrones, who killed off a major character that is still alive in the books.
Gilliam’s legal incident is unfortunate, and it’s not excusable. But it raises questions that his employers have to answer moving forward.