Beta’s Backstory Revealed on The Walking Dead

The Whisperer War is in full swing on The Walking Dead, and the show’s most recent episode gives insight into the new leader of the mysterious group. For the past season, audiences have watched as Beta, played by actor Ryan Hurst, has torn his way through soldiers from Alexandria and the Hilltop. The physically imposing adversary proved to be a match for even the show’s most battle-hardened character, Norman Reedus’s Daryl Dixon. While other Whisperers, including the group’s original leader, Alpha, routinely take off their zombie masks, Beta has always taken painstaking efforts to hide his face.

Throughout the season, writers have hinted that Beta might have been a famous person before the zombie apocalypse hit The Walking Dead’s universe. In this season’s second episode, a flashback showed Alpha and Beta’s first meeting, where Alpha instantly recognized Beta. In the twelfth episode, Beta’s mask is ripped in half during a confrontation with Gamma. When another Whisperer says that he now recognizes Beta from before the apocalypse, Beta murders him before he can tell the audience the character’s real name. The show’s companion series, Fear the Walking Dead, also hinted that Beta was a famous musician prior to the apocalypse. The spinoff series briefly showed an album cover featuring a singer that sports Beta’s iconic beard.

This week’s episode, entitled “Look at the Flowers,” once again brought back the album from the show’s spinoff, explicitly revealing that Beta was a musician prior to the fall of civilization. Sitting in a bar, Beta plays the record, which is entitled Half Moon, as a horde of the undead gather in the streets outside. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Angela Kang says that it was Hurst’s idea to portray Beta as a famous singer. In the comic books, the character is a former professional basketball player. Kang adds that she feels that the twist of Beta having a dark side that manifested itself following the apocalypse makes the character more interesting. Kang also says that a country song that Magna listened to earlier this season was also performed by Hurst. The showrunner adds that she and the rest of the writers have enjoyed peppering hints at Beta’s life prior to the apocalypse throughout the season.

This week’s episode of the series will see Beta lead a horde of zombies against Alexandria. Afterwards, the show will go on an indefinite hiatus. Due to quarantine efforts from the coronavirus pandemic, the crew could not finish post-production on the season ten finale. AMC says that the finale will air at a later date this year.