- Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead," season 10, episode 20.
- Michael James Shaw was recently cast as Mercer, the leader of the Commonwealth soldiers.
- Paola Lázaro, who plays Princess, says the two have already spoken and "absolutely love each other."
Michael James Shaw has been cast on the final season of "The Walking Dead" as comic favorite Mercer and Paola Lázaro has already spoken with the actor who becomes her romantic partner (in the comics anyway).
"Yes. We absolutely love each other," Lázaro told Insider of speaking with the show's newest cast member.
"I called one of my friends who knew him and I was like, 'Hey, I'm going to work with Michael,' and they had so many beautiful things to say about him and those have all been confirmed," she continued. "He's a fantastic person. I'm very excited to hopefully have some deep scenes with him."
Deadline reported Shaw's ("Blood & Treasure") casting on the show earlier this month.
Shaw shared an image of shared a side-by-side of himself with the comic character on Instagram along with the announcement.
Lázaro was among many "TWD" cast and crew to welcome him warmly to the show in the comments, saying, "🔥🔥🔥💓💓💓🔥🔥🔥 Yes! ¡Felicidades!"
"He is fire. He is so fire," Lázaro said when we mentioned the fire emojis she shared on social media, reacting to his casting announcement.
Introduced in issue No. 177 of Robert Kirkman's "TWD" comic series, the leader of the Commonwealth militia rocks a mohawk and is dealing with a rising internal conflict in his community.
In the comics, Mercer and Princess forge a close bond and start a romantic relationship.
That's not to say that the two will end up together on "TWD" (the series has made plenty of major changes from the comic), but Lázaro said she hopes to share the screen with Shaw.
You may have missed it, but Sunday's episode of "TWD" briefly teased Mercer, but by name only.
As members of the Commonwealth army passed by Princess's train car where she was held hostage, one of them said the following, "You could be the one to tell Mercer." (Presumably, they're discussing their new captives, including Princess.)
The moment is a little tough to hear on Sunday's episode because of the final sound mix which drowns out the dialogue. On the press screeners delivered earlier in the week, Insider was able to make out the line a lot clearer. The line of dialogue didn't appear for us when we watched with captions on AMC+.
The small detail is significant because Princess has no idea how much of an impact this person may have on her life in the future.
You can follow along with our "TWD" coverage here.
