The second season of The Walking Dead: Dead City featured the return of Maggie, Negan, and others from the debut season and also introduced several newcomers. One exciting addition was Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates. Who does he portray?
Dead City is the Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) spinoff that is set in Manhattan. The first season found Maggie in a difficult position, which required her to seek out the help of Negan, the man who brutally killed her husband. After betraying him, to secure her son's release, Maggie returned to her new community, the Bricks, while Negan became a captive of the Croat (Željko Ivanek), a former Savior and a brutal woman called the Dama (Lisa Emery).
The second, eight-part season of Dead City premiered on AMC and AMC+ in May 2025, and the story follows Maggie and Negan, who are trapped on opposing sides of the battle for the methane production in Manhattan.
Kim Coates joins Dead City as Bruegel
Early in 2024, Kim Coates was announced for the upcoming season of The Walking Dead spinoff, Dead City. Fans were eager to find out more about the role he would play, Bruegel, who was described as an intelligent and manipulative leader of one of the fiercest gangs in New York.
Soon after his casting announcement, Coates was a guest on the podcast PIE (People, Influences, and Experiences), hosted by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter and his wife, Katie Sutter, Coates' co-star on SOA. In this interview, he shared that the second season of Dead City would feature eight episodes, two more than the debut season, and that he would be one of the lead bad guys.
Bruegel is a sarcastic, intelligent, and powerful man who leads a gang known as Silk Stockings. While he is brutal, he also has an appreciation of art, as seen in episode 204. He shared that he was a man of power and influence, loved by some and hated by more, before the outbreak. The Croat, who is in a rival gang, describes him as a "slippery eel."
His gang gained control of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) from another rival, Christos (Jake Weary), during a walker gladiator match. Here he has gathered an impressive collection of art, which includes his favorite, George Washington Crossing the Delaware.
In an interview with 650 CKOM, Saskatoon's News and Conversation Station, Coates revealed some interesting details about Bruegel.
"He’s a multi, multi, multi-millionaire hedge fund CEO who, during the zombie apocalypse, has his own bunker. He hides in the floor of this bunker for a year and a half, and when it’s safe to come back up to Earth in that whole Walking Dead universe, he forms the biggest gang in New York. There’s three of them now in the second season, I’m certainly the boss of the biggest one. He’s conniving, he’s funny, he’s a dink, He’s smart, he’s a coward. I can’t tell you how many zombies I kill. I can’t tell you what happens at the end of the second season. You’ll have to watch. But it was just so fun to play."Kim Coates
By the end of ep. 204, Negan convinces Bruegel to join their fight against New Babylon who desire control of the methane production. As the season continues it will be interesting to see if the rival gangs can truly come together or will they turn on one another?
New episodes of The Walking Dead: Dead City air on AMC and AMC+ on Sunday. The season finale airs on June 22.
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