One of the longest-running talking points around The Walking Dead has been the mysterious disappearance of Corey Hawkins’s Heath. If you recall, he ditched got separated from Tara back in Season 7 when they were besieged by desiccated zombies during a supply run. Later, a flashback showed a suppressed memory of Tara’s that revealed a clue to his disappearance – a keycard with the letters ‘PPP’ inked on it in marker pen. But the mystery remains.
Walking Dead bosses have been hinting for some time that they’d like Heath to return and that they may follow up his story one day. But at a San Diego Comic-Con press conference, we finally got a more concrete answer about the plan to tell Heath’s story – and crucially how.
FANDOM asked Scott M. Gimple, who oversees the entire Walking Dead universe, if we will ever see a resolution to Heath’s story. He responded: “I guess the best answer to that question is yes, if circumstances play out right. [But] it might not be on The Walking Dead or even Fear the Walking Dead.”
“There is a Story for Heath”
One of Gimple’s responsibilities in his new role is to expand the universe of The Walking Dead. He told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year: “We’re going to be doing traditional stuff, non-traditional stuff, stuff people don’t expect.”
Gaming and other platforms fall under Gimple’s umbrella as well as television, but he confirmed that they will be heading down the scripted route. “The odds of unscripted are very remote,” he added. “But I’m not going to say no. We’re going to have cool new Walking Dead stuff.”
Any spin-off project featuring Heath will almost certainly star Corey Hawkins and pick up from where we saw him last.
Gimple told us: “You know, Corey Hawkins is an amazing actor. We only had him for a little bit of time and now he’s a movie star but we want to work with him again, and we want to tell more of that character and, you know, the way that character left the show, there is a story there. There is a story for that character, it’s just there is a lot of flexibility built in because [Hawkins] is making movies.”
Does this mean we’re looking at a whole new Walking Dead spin-off starring Hawkins? Or is something on a different platform in the works? However Heath’s story is brought to us, fans who’ve been waiting with bated breath to discover his fate – and the meaning of ‘PPP’ — will soon be able to finally exhale.