The Walking Dead’s extended season 10 “Home Sweet Home” bonus episode has a “freaking adorable” character — the little Hershel Rhee played by young actor Kien Michael Spiller. Hershel is the son of Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Glenn (Steven Yuen). The cap-wearing, 8-year-old zombie apocalypse survivor was named after his grandpa, Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson). Baby Hershel (Peyton Lockridge) first appeared in season nine’s “The Obliged” episode.
In last night’s bonus episode premiere, the Rhee’s homecoming was spoiled when Maggie unexpectedly encounters her husband’s killer, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Then Maggie and Daryl (Norman Reedus) are faced with an unseen and unknown enemy during a mission.
“Little Hershel is freaking adorable. The young actor, he’s great,” showrunner Angela Kang said of newcomer Kien Michael Spiller during the Walking Dead Extended Season 10 Preview Special. “I think he’s really this wonderful mix of the characters Maggie and Glenn. I feel like his vibe, it’s a very Maggie-like vibe where still waters run deep and there’s sort of like a zen seriousness to him. And yet there is this rascally side too that I think is very reminiscent of Glenn, and I think in that way, it’s really lovely to have young Hershel finally be really part of our cast and able to interact with his mother in a different way.”
Kang added, “I think people will enjoy him, hopefully, as much as we really love having him.”
The Walking Dead Bonus Episode “Home Sweet Home”, Maggie and Hershel Rhee come home. (Spoiler-free)
We learned more about Maggie and Hershel’s years away from Hilltop during the bonus episode, which is set in the aftermath of the Whisperer War. Now that the Hilltop colony is left in ashes, the Rhees have no choice, but to co-exist with Negan – the “bad man” – whose life sentence was reduced by Carol (Melissa McBride).
“Negan definitely has a soft spot for the younger generation, and we’ve seen that numerous times. I think he has a relationship with young kids that is very honest, and I don’t think that he would shy away from letting this kid know who he is, and try to work through it,” Morgan said over the summer about a potential bond between Negan and Hershel. “I think that may be a way — we’ll see, I’m not a writer on this show — but that may be a way that Maggie sees a different side of Negan, as well. I think initially she’ll just want to kill him, but we’ll see what happens.”
Watch The Walking Dead’s extended season 10 bonus episodes Sundays on AMC.
