THE WALKING DEAD Season Three Casts Dallas Roberts for Original Role; Four EW Magazine Covers Debut

AMC's Emmy Award-winning series The Walking Dead is directed by Glen Mazzara and based on the acclaimed comic book series by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. Filming for season three recently wrapped in Georgia.

The Walking Dead tells the story of the weeks and months that follow a pandemic zombie apocalypse. County Sheriff Rick Grimes travels with his family and a small group of survivors, constantly in search of a safe and secure home. But the constant pressure of fighting off death on a daily basis takes a heavy toll, sending many to the lowest depths of human cruelty. As Rick struggles to keep his family alive, he will discover that the overwhelming fear of the survivors can be far more dangerous than the mindless walkers roaming the earth.

Dallas Roberts (The Grey) has joined the third season cast of The Walking Dead to play a character named Milton -- a resident of the town of Woodbury who also works with the ruthless Governor (David Morrissey). Walking Dead creator and series executive producer Robert Kirkman offered a few details about Robert's role in the show:

"Milton is the details guy. He’s the guy that works with the Governor, who is monitoring all situations and is trying to help the Governor make sense of this world that they’re living in. He’s not exactly a scientist, but he’s a smart guy that is trying to find out how zombies behave. Watching him do his little experiments is going to be a lot of fun."

Director and showrunner Glen Mazzara offered a few more details about the character and why is was necessary to include someone who wasn't a geared towards physical aggression:

"We were examining, ‘How do people survive in this apocalyptic world, and what can people contribute?’ And we didn’t think it was plausible that every single character we meet is an efficient zombie killer. We just didn’t buy that everyone we know would be active and deft enough to kill every walker. We wanted to show how other people survive, and Dallas has come in and helped us establish that character. He just adds a lot of heart and humanity to Woodbury, which further complicates what that is. That is a real town with real people and real survivors. It’s not necessarily a group of bad guys."

Entertainment Weekly has also debuted four new cover images featuring main characters from the upcoming season:

AMC's Emmy Award-winning series The Walking Dead is directed by Glen Mazzara and based on the acclaimed comic book series by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. The upcoming season will star Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, David Morrissey, Danai Gurira and Norman Reedus. The series returns October 14th, 2012 for it's 16-episode third season.