Spoilers for The Walking Dead follow.
Two major players from The Walking Dead and Bridgerton are teaming up for brand new British TV show The Burning Girls.
Samantha Morton, who played Alpha in The Walking Dead, and Ruby Stokes, Bridgerton's original Francesca, are the two actors who will star in the Paramount+ TV series.
Based on CJ Tudor's novel of the same name, The Burning Girls follows a Reverend and her daughter looking for a fresh start in Chapel Croft. However, they soon find that their new community has a dark history filled with ancient superstitions.
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Morton will play the Reverend Jack Brooks, who is a single mother trying to escape the past that haunts her. A tragedy from her previous church and her husband's death plague her. Meanwhile, Stokes will play Flo, the Reverend's daughter. Together, they begin to unravel the dark, bloody past of their home.
In the press release for the series, it is revealed that Protestant martyrs were burned at the stake 500 years ago while two girls disappeared from the town 30 years ago. And just a few weeks before Reverend Jack and Flo moved to Chapel Croft, the local vicar killed himself in his own church.
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The series is described as a psychological horror that meets a small-town mystery series, which certainly suits Morton. Morton played one of The Walking Dead's scariest (and best!) villains in Alpha. Alpha was the leader of the Whisperers – a group who disguised themselves as zombies by using the skin of dead people – in seasons nine and 10 of the AMC series until she was killed by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
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Stokes doesn't quite have the same horror-tinged background on her acting CV at the moment, but fans did fall in love with her performance as Francesca Bridgerton in Netflix's hugely popular period show. Stokes played the role for the first two seasons but left the show after season two in order to pursue other projects. Hannah Dodd has taken over the role of Francesca for season three.
Conrad Khan, Rupert Graves and Elodie Grace Orkin, amongst others, costar with Morton and Stokes in The Burning Girls, while Marcella creator Hans Rosenfeldt will show-run and act as lead writer. The series will debut in the UK and other territories in 2023.
The Walking Dead season 11 airs on AMC in the US and STAR on Disney+ in the UK.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Jacob is a freelance writer who specialises in narrative TV and film.
He graduated from the University of Roehampton with an MA in Journalism and has written for several publications since, including Gold Derby, Insider, and Screen Daily.
Jacob has covered major events in the world of film and TV, including numerous BAFTA ceremonies and the Cannes Film Festival, while he's also been an awards expert for several publications, including Korea's Arirang. His particular areas of interest include Star Wars, the MCU, the Oscars, and Hugh Grant.
