The trailer for The Walking Dead season 8 was released yesterday, first shown to the audience in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con.
All-out war continues between the Saviors and Rick and his crew is teased in the trailer, including, of course, zombies, zombies, and more zombies, some strangers to us and others bearing a distinct resemblance to characters we know. Michonne is still alive, staring angrily in a car and Rick looking worried. T
in the second half of the trailer, we hear Rick give a wartime speech: “That bigger world is ours, by right. Those who use and kill, we end them. Everything we’ve beaten, everything we’ve endured, everything we’ve risen above, everything we’ve become — no matter what comes next, we’ve won. We’ve already won!”
The Walking Dead season 8 is set to air on AMC on October 22nd.
Ever since Tom Payne made his The Walking Dead debut a year ago as fan-favorite Jesus, speculation has brewed over how much of his persona from the comic books would be retained – and specifically, whether his sexuality would remain the same. Payne said last year that he saw no reason why his on-screen Jesus wouldn’t be gay, as he is in the comics, and in tonight’s [last night’s] episode “The Other Side,” he officially became the show’s third major gay character.
Between the fact that Jesus is an elusive and taciturn guy to begin with, and the fact that these characters are living in fear of a fascist dictator during a zombie apocalypse, it’s no surprise that it took a while for the subject to come up. But Jesus knows who he is – he’s one of the more self-possessed characters in the cast – and there is no dramatic “coming out” moment here, during a moment of bonding between Jesus and Maggie.
It’s surprising that it took over a year for this event to happen especially since everyone pretty much knows that in the comic that Jesus is gay from the giddy-up.
The screen gifs below were take from a Walker Stalker birthday video that Josh McDermott (Eugene) and Micheal Cudlitz (Abraham) made for Christian Serratos who plays Rosita on TWD.
Am I the only one who think it looks like they have both done this before?
Instead of urging Hollywood’s movie and television industry to get on board and speak-out against Georgia’s heinous anti-gay” license to discriminate” bill for the past 2 months. Chad Hunter Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign finally spoke out last night at his group’s Los Angeles gala where he called on the assembled Hollywood movers and shakers to boycott the state if the bill becomes law.
“I know we have many entertainment industry leaders in the room tonight. Like other states, Georgia offers tax incentives for TV and film productions, and as a result, the entertainment industry has a huge economic footprint in the state. But if this bill is signed into law, your employees, your contractors — all those working on your production are at risk of state-sanctioned discrimination. That is wrong. It’s un-American. It’s an affront on all the values Hollywood prides itself on. And you have the influence and the opportunity to not only defeat this bill, but to send a message that there are consequences to passing dangerous and hateful laws like this. And so tonight, we’re asking you to join us as we urge TV and film studios, directors and producers, to commit to locating no further productions in the state of Georgia if this bill becomes law.”
Back2Stonewall.com has been reaching out to major television productions such as “The Walking Dead” and other television shows that film companies that shoot in Georgia for the past few months.
The anti-gay bill was sent to Georgia’s Gov. Nathan Deal to sign on Friday. Deal has spoken out against the bill.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is stepping up for the LGBT community once again.
Almost a year after Benioff and his cloud-computing company led the charge to stop a proposed anti-gay law in Indiana to legalized discrimination against LGBT people in the name of religious freedom, Benioff says he is gearing up for a fresh fight against a similar bill in Georgia.
“Nobody wants a discrimination law in America today,” Benioff. But there are still bigots out there fighting for people to be discriminated against.”
Salesforce only has about 1,000 workers in Georgia, but in May it is scheduled to host its annual Connections conference in Atlanta. The event draws about 15,000 Salesforce clients each year for three days. On Friday, Benioff posted a poll on Twitter, asking if he should change the event’s location if the FADA bill becomes law. This morning, 80 percent of the roughly 5,800 voters supported the move.
“We will bring economic consequences,” Benioff told the Huffington Post. “We will deliver a rolling thunder of economic sanctions against the state, in this case Georgia, which is waging a war against LGBT people.”
Benioff plans to bring other corporations into the battle also and has already contacted the chief executives of Home Depot, Coca-Cola, email marketing service MailChimp and shipping giant UPS about the issue all of which are headquartered in the state.
Georgia state Sen. Joshua McKoon (R), sent out a barrage of tweets on Friday afternoon criticizing Benioff for threatening to pull out of his state while continuing to do business in India and Singapore stating: “To threaten this economic extortion to influence the public policy process is not only incredibly wrong, but hypocritical. It’s unbelievably hypocritical for someone who I’m not convinced has even read the legislation that’s under consideration here to make the suggestion that businesses should leave the state because he has some interpretation that this is in some way anti-gay.”
Last year Georgia also had 248 film and television productions shot in Georgia including the AMC blockbuster “The Walking Dead” on AMC; “Rectify” on Sundance.
The industry represents $1.7 billion in spending in the state.
On last nights episode of The Walking Dead the show introduced what possibly is its 5th gay character in the form of Paul “Jesus” Rovia. (Last name Monroe in the comics but obviously changed now as not to be confused people with the now zombie Deena Monroe and still alive and very hot son Spencer.)
During the episode called “The New World” aka. Daryl and Rick Excellent Adventure. Jesus does make a good first impression on them. His face is half-covered in a white cloth Jesus literally runs into our dynamic duo at a trashed old gas station, where he stealthily swipes the keys to the fully loaded truck they just found. Before he sneaks away, however, he pulls away his mask, reveals a long beard, extends his arms and says. “But my friends used to call me Jesus.”
The rest of the episode is about our heroes looking for Jesus. (Literally, not symbolically.) And even after Rick and Daryl catch up to him and draw their guns. Nothing seems to faze this Jesus with the slick kung-fu moves and ability to easily slip out of traps.
Jesus is a member of a different community called the Hilltop and was first introduced in comic issue #91.
Well-versed in martial arts, Jesus is probably one of the most rational and level-headed men in the apocalypse. Similar to Daryl, Jesus goes on runs for his Hilltop community so that’s why we see him out on the road at the start of season six, episode two.
The website The Weekly Crisis listed Jesus as #10 in their list of The Ten Best Characters in The Walking Dead, saying:
“Being nicknamed after the son of God seems like one hell of an exaggeration, but Jesus has shown time and time again that he is a good, trusting man who just wants what’s best for everyone. The name fits.
Over the course of the comic series, Jesus becomes one of the most loyal characters at Rick’s disposal.
He’s also openly gay. (Well at least in the comic.)
When asked whether Jesus’ sexuality will make the leap from page to screen in an interview with E! Online actor Tom Payne who plays the character replied:. “We haven’t gotten to that aspect of the character yet, but I think people will be happy,” he teased. “The show is not afraid to stick to what keeps it real and keeps it going.”
I don’t believe that The Walking Dead would ever change the sexuality of one of the comics most famous characters. But what about the other 4 lesbian and gay characters? Tara. Denise, Aaron and Andrew. With the introduction of another gay character, and such a major one at that are one or more of their lives hanging in the balance?
The Decatur, GA based 373K Telcom company announced it would be leaving via Twitter. Its founders are outraged over the states First Amendment Defense Act, which has nothing to do with the First Amendment and extends legal cover state-wide to individuals and corporations to discriminate against LGBT people and same-sex couples.
373K Client Relations Manager Brian Greene said the company no longer feels comfortable paying taxes in Georgia.
“I’m gay, our CFO is gay, we have people from every walk of life working here,” co-founder Kelvin Williams told NCRM on Saturday. “I’ve got Muslims, Buddhists, atheists here. We’ve got great Christians working for us. They’ve never thought of not serving anyone – that’s not the message of Christ.”
“We don’t tolerate that crap,” he added definitively.
Four major LGBT supportive Fortune 500 companies: The Home Depot, United Parcel Service (UPS), The Coca-Cola Company, and Delta Air Lines, are headquartered in Atlanta as well as AMC’s hit show The Walking Dead which films in the state.
The Tourism industry in Georgia is the 5th largest employer in the state with a total economic impact of $53.6 billion.
AMC’s The Walking Dead will introduce another key comic book character in season 6, that of Paul (Jesus) Monroe.
The character was first introduced in issue 91 of the comics. He is a resident at the Alexandria Safe-Zone who moved to the community from another group called the Hilltop Colony. The character is a rare logical man and skilled adviser with a strong sense of morals and values who is well-adapted to the new world.
He’s also a kickass and GAY!
Paul has displayed exceptional skills in close-quarters combat; it has not been elaborated if Paul has had previous military, law enforcement, or martial arts training before the undead apocalypse began. He has also shown to be an excellent escape artist twice, as he managed to single-handedly untie ropes that bound his limbs.
Tom Payne (Waterloo Road, Luck) has been tasked with the job of bringing Jesus to the small screen.
In the comic the character is introduced as the main core of survivors start to venture outside of Alexandria, bumping into him on his way back to the Hilltop Colony – another community of survivors. serves as a go-between for Rick and the Hilltop, and provides key intel on the series’ biggest bad to date; the leader of The Saviors, Negan. Speaking of that baseball bat-loving psycho, further rumors suggest that a new casting call is out for an actor to tackle the villainous role.
The Walking Dead Season Six will premiere on AMC on October 11, 2015.
