The Walking Dead Season 8 Premiere: Who Is Siddiq?
The mysterious man from the gas station, explained.
The Walking Dead has returned for its eighth season, kicking off the All Out War storyline in the process.
The season opener, Mercy, featured lots of action, nods to the past, and fan-favourite characters back together, but it also brought a new player into this world.
Near both the start and the end of the episode there's a mysterious man at the gas station, first scared off by Rick and then apologised to by Carl, and he's one comics readers will be familiar with: Siddiq, played here by Avi Nash.
The character doesn't appear in the comic series until after All Out War (issue 127, to be exact), so they are expediting his arrival here, but it should be easy enough to work him into the plot with where things currently stand.
Siddiq is a lone traveller from Miami, who spent some time as a fisherman for Oceanside before meeting Michonne, who goes off on her own journey in the future, and he subsequently makes his way to Alexandria. Once there he informs Rick of Oceanside's existence, joins the construction crew, and eventually begins an affair with Rosita (who, er, is dating Eugene). He's not a major character in terms of the overarching narrative, but has become something of a fan-favourite.
The casting for the TV show version matches up with some of that (although the call was for a character named Abbud), describing him as "an innately likeable Muslim American whose nerves are, let’s say, jangled, because he’s flown solo for too long in zombieland."
Since we've already met Oceanside on the show, it's easy to introduce Siddiq now rather than having to wait for the time jump to occur. It could be that, unbeknownst to the women, he's the lone male survivor from Oceanside, but the idea of him being solo for so long suggests he might not have met them yet. If he has, though, then it makes for an easy way to bring that community back into the fold.
One thing we do know about his time on the show is that he's going to meet Rick, since the former Sherrif is repeating his quote about mercy and wrath in the future, so we can at least expect him to make it to Alexandria and start working there.
Are you excited to see Siddiq on the show? Let us know down in the comments.