British actor David Morrissey has been cast as The Governor, the sadistic leader of a group of survivors, in the third season of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

The character has become a fan favourite in the original comicbook series on which the series is based, and is the focus of a sequence of prequel novels which began last year.

Morrissey was touted as a successor to David Tennant’s tenth Doctor in the lead-up to his guest appearance on the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Next Doctor.