Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) was introduced in the tenth episode of "The Walking Dead" Season 4 titled "Inmates," and while he already appeared in four episodes last season, viewers still do not know much about him. But Cudlitz assured fans that Abraham is definitely not a "throwaway character" and details about his past will be revealed in Season 5.
"Abraham is a force to be reckoned with and a real big personality," Cudlitz said of his character in a recent interview with Los Angeles Register. "Whether he's right or he's wrong, Abraham is all in. That makes for great choices and awesome consequences. I just can't wait to see where it goes."
But it is unlikely that the show will devote an entire episode to tell Abraham's backstory as the upcoming season is very much different from Season 4, where most episodes only focused on a select group of characters.
"They've done a real good job of peeling back the onion as you go along," the 49-year-old actor said. "
"And as you get to know about the characters, you care about them. There are no throwaway characters on this show."
Abraham is a character from the comic, which first appeared in Issue 53 of Image Comics' "The Walking Dead." He is a Sergeant in the U.S. Army, who is initially hostile to Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) group, believing them too inexperienced with the apocalypse, and a hindrance in his mission of delivering Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) to Washington, D.C. But eventually, he grows to accept them and becomes Rick's right hand man following the death of Tyreese (Chad Coleman), according to The Walking Dead Wiki.
When asked how Abraham may fit into a group that already has several leaders like Rick and Daryl (Norman Reedus), Cudlitz, who is best known for his role in the TNT drama "Southland," answered, "If it's war time and you're in battle, there are certain personalities that are good to take care of things. The group needs that strength," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"It's going to be curious to see when things settle down who is able to step back and who is not," he continued. "When there's two people in a van, it's easy to work things out. But when the extended family gets involved, things start to fall apart sometimes. That's potentially what's going to happen."
But Abraham is positive that his group - comprised of Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos) and Eugene - will get along well with Rick's gang.
"All the groups can coexist to some degree," he told reporters at San Diego Comic-Con last July. "We have one group that definitely has a mission and one that doesn't - other than staying alive and keeping their core together. Right now, they all have the same mission: to get out of where they are. There's times where the shortest distance is not always the straight line, and both groups understand that. And all the leaders in the group understand that."
"The Walking Dead" Season 5 premieres on Oct. 12 at 9:00pm ET/PT on AMC.