Johnny Depp’s Head Makes Cameo On ‘The Walking Dead’

The Walking Dead episode Sunday night – “Not Tomorrow Yet” – featured a scene that included a few severed heads – one of which bore a remarkable resemblance to Johnny Depp.

Johnny Depp On ‘Walking Dead’

In “Not Tomorrow Yet,” Rick and the group are putting their plan together to attack the Saviors’ stronghold so that the Alexandrians and the Hilltop community can coexist in relative peace. The first part of the plan is to convince the Savior guards that they have brought the Hilltop leader Gregory’s head for Negan. Thus begins the search for a zombie that looks the most like him.

After combing the woods, the group displays a few severed walker heads that could potentially pass for Gregory, played by Xander Berkeley. Since Berkeley didn’t have time to get a face mold done ahead of filming, showrunner Greg Nicotero had to get creative with what they had in stock – which included a mold of his own head.

“The Gregory head is actually a cast of my head. When Xander Berkeley was cast as Gregory, we didn’t have enough time to get him to Los Angeles to do a head cast and make a dummy head of him, so I sent photos of him and I said, “Here’s a picture of the actor. Let’s see what we have in stock that looks as close to Xander as it can be,’“ Nicotero told Entertainment Weekly. “It ended up being a mold of my head. So that head that he picks up is actually a fake head of me!

“One of the other heads, I don’t know if I’m going to get in trouble if I say this, was Johnny Depp. I think we had sculpted an emaciated version of a dummy head for something and we used Johnny Depp’s head as a basis just for a clay sculpt,” Nicotero continued. “I can’t remember who the third one is, but I’m in good company. Norman [Reedus] kept saying he wanted the heads when we were done shooting. I said we’ve got to wait until the picture is logged.”

Nicotero added, “I think one of the funniest moments we’ve shot in the season is when the Savior sticks his hand inside the head and puppeteers it to start talking. I laughed so hard when we shot that scene.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC at 9/8c.