The Walking Dead is hands down my favorite show of all-time. Rust Cohle is my favorite individual character of all-time and Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad is the most well-written show in television history (I won’t hear any arguments to the contrary). But there’s something about watching zombies getting gored in brutal and inventive ways that just makes me giddy. I absolutely love the characters and (most of) the writing but the thing I love most is the show’s exploration of what life could be like and what humans can turn into, while both living and dead, when an apocalyptic “reset” button is pressed on society.
I’ve always had an odd and dark fascination with the apocalypse which has led me to love films like The Road, those in the Planet of the Apes series, as well as games like The Last of Us and those in the Fallout series. My interest in this doomful topic has increased since we now have a president that knows and cares little about the 15,000 nuclear weapons on Earth right now; a man that’s about half a dozen tweets and a Big Mac-fueled press conference away from bringing upon a nuclear end of days.
Since I began watching The Walking Dead shortly after season 2 aired, I’ve given a good amount of thought as to what my general plan(s) of action would be if a catastrophic collapse of our somewhat organized society were to occur – specifically if it involved flesh-eating zombies. My main goal would obviously be to get to my family as fast as possible then work to survive long enough to band together with a group of morally righteous individuals, hoping to eventually rebuild some of what was lost. Or in other words, find a real life version of Alexandria.
But if I could handpick a small group of individuals to help my family and I fight off a horde of the undead, who would be the best candidates? If choosing from the world of celebrity, who would make great teammates in an ongoing struggle for survival during a zombie apocalypse? There are a lot of things to consider in this decision but ultimately, there are a number of celebs that immediately come to mind…
Desus Nice & The Kid Mero
It’s hilarious and you can get sense of how funny these dudes really are from just a 13 minute video. Having people around to make you laugh even when death is literally around every corner would be phenomenal. Which, as much as I love TWD as it is, I also love comedy; a bit more comedic relief in the show would be appreciated. I don’t give a damn how horrible life can be, you can still shed tears from laughter even when it’s only sadness that grips you.
These two are also no strangers to the struggles of living with a general lack of resources. In the video they mention having to eat duck sauce soup and ketchup sandwiches because they were so broke they didn’t really have a choice. Broke food and apocalypse food are one in the same. You ever eat beans out the can because you didn’t have enough dish soap to eat out of a plate or a bowl? Being broke = living in a personal apocalyptic wasteland, trust me.
Serena Williams
Not only is she a legendary tennis player with 23 Grand Slam wins and 4 Olympic gold medals under her belt but, as illustrated by this fantastic cover story by The Fader (that publication is amazing), she is also intelligent, insightful, full of humility and funny (there’s that word again). I get that the sense that if someone had no idea who she was, they would never guess she was one of the most decorated athletes in history because of how down to earth she is, which is astounding to me because my ego would be the size of Wimbledon Stadium by the time I was that accomplished.
From that cover story you also get the sense that she is no push over. She once chased a man down and confronted him after he stole her cell phone in a crowded restaurant. As humble as Serena Williams is, she is not one to mess with. In 2013 she served a tennis ball 128.3 miles per hour…lol wut…If there is anyone that could decapitate dozens of the undead with the ease of swinging a flyswatter, it would be her.
Williams would be our Michonne – an incredibly tough and aggressive yet very intelligent and honorable black woman that’s highly skilled at swinging objects that could cause severe bodily harm.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
No crew baring the hardships and horrors of a post-apocalyptic wasteland is complete without a true brainiac. And what better brain to have around than the illustrious and just all-around awesome Neil deGrasse Tyson? Even though he is technically an astrophysicist, he is well known for his outstanding logic and general wealth of knowledge on all things science related. His area of expertise is understanding space but I would be willing to bet he knows enough about chemistry to make a bomb out of typical household items, much like Eugene.
But Mr. Tyson, like Desus and Mero, is from the Bronx. And not only that, but he wrestled throughout high school and college, so I can’t imagine him backing down during an altercation, unlike Eugene. Tyson is almost 60 years old but I bet he is still very capable of taking another grown man down or cutting through a handful of zombies with a machete. With an undergraduate degree in physics from Harvard, he would be an invaluable asset in getting the crew out of tight situations and crafting weapons, traps and defenses to use against the living and the dead. An intelligence of his caliber is certainly something you want on your side because it would be a nightmare to challenge him in life-or-death battle of wits.
Apparently this is Photoshopped, but that doesn’t keep it from being badass.
Lauren Cohan
I chose her after asking the simple question, “Why not?” Why not have the woman that plays, wonderfully I might add, Maggie on TWD be part of my hypothetical apocalypse A-Team?
I’ve been a big fan of both Maggie Greene Rhee, the character, and Lauren Cohan, the actress, since I first started watching the show. Maggie is as empathetic as she is ferocious and her plotline is such an enjoyable and vital part of the overall narrative.
Being a part of The Walking Dead‘s principle cast has got to be the closest thing to actual zombie apocalypse training there is, right? Other than using prop weapons rather than real ones, of course. Although, Lauren did say during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “I have an urge to stay away from an blood. Being on the show has not made me stronger to like, the elements or to any violence. It’s made me extremely squeamish.“
To me that only means she will inevitably be a very good shooter because she can keep enemies at a distance and not get their blood splashed on her when she kills them.
It’s also worth noting that Cohan is playing Tupac’s first manager, Leila Steinberg, in the upcoming biopic All Eyez on Me about the late and my all-time favorite rapper. And Danai Gurira aka Michonne is playing Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, in the film as well. *Insert dad joke about Tupac being a “Walking Dead” man somewhere in Cuba or Puerto Rico. On an unrelated side note – Leila Steinberg is the manager of my favorite living rapper, Earl Sweatshirt. All of these connections remind me that the world can be a beautiful place sometimes.
And so there it is, my ideal five person all-star starting line-up for the potentially incoming but hopefully hypothetical Trumpocalypse. Five people (six including myself) is good squad number because it’s large enough to put up a damn good fight against a decent sized zombie mass or a small group of living enemies. However, the group is still small enough to be very mobile and not demand an abundance of resources. I unintentionally made this a predominately black crew but I’m glad it is because The Walking Dead loves to kill off its black characters. At least in my group’s case, if they killed one of us we would still have the numbers to have an excellent roasting session so take that Hollywood. #SMDFTB
Right now the show is as good as it’s ever been and these celebrities are as successful as they’ve ever been. I hope things continue that way and Trump lets us all at least make it to season 9.
Zenophobia 