Walking Dead's Merritt Wever joins HBO's historical drama The Gilded Age

Walking Dead actress Merritt Wever, who is also well known for her roles in Nurse Jackie and Unbelievable, will join the historical drama The Gilded Age for its third season.

The series, which premiered on HBO in 2022, was created by Downton Abby's Julian Fellowes, who also writes and serves as executive producer. The Gilden Age is set during the boom years of the 1880s in the United States and has received much praise and recognition for the period costumes and lead actor performances.

The main cast consists of Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Denée Benton, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Harry Richardson, and Blake Ritson. Variety reports that Wever, along with Bill Camp, Leslie Uggams, LisaGay Hamilton, Paul Alexander Nolan, Hattie Morahan, Andrea Martin, and Jessica Frances Dukes, joins the continued story in season 3.

The Gilded Age tells of Marian Book (Jacobson), who enters New York society in 1882. She is drawn into the unfamiliar world of new money, the Russell family, and old money, the van Rhijn-Brook family. The story tackles conflicts between the upper and upper middle class, the African-American upper class, and the domestic workers. This era is all about excess and the social scene of the Upper East Side of New York.

Below is the trailer for season 1 of The Gilded Age to give you a feel for what the series entails.

Wever will portray Monica O'Brien, Bertha Russell's (Coon) estranged sister who arrives on the scene during a crucial time in the Russell family's story. Camp will play American financier J.P. Morgan who will come against George Russell (Spector) and his ideas for the future of the railroad industry. Another notable character addition is that of the famed Black suffragist, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper who will be portrayed by Uggams.

Season 3 of The Gilded Age began filming in July 2024.

Merritt Wever - other roles

Walking Dead fans remember Emmy Award-Winning Wever as Denise Cloyd, who was a member of Alexandria. She would serve as the community's doctor until her death during season 6.

Wever is well known for her role as Zoey in Showtime's Nurse Jackie. Her performance in the role earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2013. She also portrayed Mary Agnes McNue in the Netflix original series Godless, a role for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie in 2018.

In 2020, she starred alongside Toni Collette in the Netflix series Unbelievable and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film.

Next, she will star in season 2 of the AppleTV+ series Severance, and the BBC and Netflix Lockerbie mini-series.