The Walking Dead’s Ross Marquand fights a different war in a new film
By Sonya Iryna
On The Walking Dead, Ross Marquand plays a capable walker killer. In his new film he fights a different battle as an American soldier in the Middle East.
When he’s not playing a walker killer with a heart of gold on The Walking Dead, Ross Marquand is known for impersonations of famous characters. But he’s bringing the seriousness of his zombie slaying character Aaron into a new film about the very real war in the Middle East.
In Hajji, Marquand plays one of two American soldiers trying to navigate the war-torn Middle East and fulfill their mission to fight terrorism. But when they start interacting with a local family they get a different perspective on war and violence. According to Entertainment Weekly, the story portrayed in Hajji isn’t the typical war narrative.
One of the producers of the film, David Lawson Jr., is an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran. He brings his own unique experience to the development and story of the film. As someone with firsthand experience of the inner and outer conflicts that service members deal with in combat he was able to bring a lot of realism to the short film.
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Ross Marquand has a great ability to portray someone faced with life or death decisions with a lot of emotion and humanity. So there’s no doubt he will bring a lot of depth to his character in Hajji. The film hasn’t been picked up for distribution yet but will be screened at film festivals in the coming year.
Parallels To The Walking Dead
There are a lot of parallels between Marquand’s character on The Walking Dead and a soldier in combat. In both situations the characters need to make instant life or death decisions to save their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
Loyalty, which is critically important on The Walking Dead, is also important in combat. And soldiers in combat don’t have the luxury of morality. Neither do the survivors on The Walking Dead. Fighting is necessary for survival.
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This doesn’t mean that Aaron won’t be around for a long time on The Walking Dead. Many of the actors take on other projects during the filming hiatus and during breaks in the filming. Based on season 7 it looks like Aaron is going to be an important member of Rick’s army as the group heads into their own war against Negan and The Saviors.