Walking Dead: Zach McGowan’s Justin Death Explained (& Who Killed Him)

Here’s how Zack McGowan’s character Justin exited The Walking Dead – and who killed him. The Walking Dead was created by Robert Kirkman, who desired to create a zombie movie that never ends. Throughout 193 issues, the comic detailed main character Rick Grimes and his merry band of survivors as they navigate a world transformed by the rise of the undead. They must overcome hordes of flesh-eating zombies and hostile human survivors – some of whom can be even more monstrous.

The Walking Dead TV series arrived on AMC in 2010 and cast Andrew Lincoln as Rick. The series soon became a global smash, with characters like Norman Reedus’ Daryl – who is unique to the show – and Danai Gurira’s Michonne becoming iconic. The Walking Dead also became famous for its gruesome violence and shocking deaths, though its critical reception would wane over the years. It also received numerous spinoffs, including shows like Fear The Walking Dead and various video games. The main show will conclude with season 11 in 2022, while Lincoln will return as Rick Grimes for a forthcoming movie.

The Walking Dead season 9 featured some big changes for the series, with Angela Kang taking over as showrunner and Lincoln exiting the series after the first five episodes. The first arc of the season sees Rick and the others attempting to rebuild following the bloody war of the previous season and unite the different communities. This also includes working with former members of Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) Saviors, which includes Zach McGowan (Black Sails) as Justin.

Justin is depicted as a jerk and an all-around bully who Daryl outright detests. While working on rebuilding a bridge in the fittingly titled episode “The Bridge,” negligence on Justin’s part is somewhat responsible for Aaron’s arm being crushed and subsequently amputated. A furious Daryl later attacks him and Rick banishes Justin from the camp. At the end of this episode of The Walking Dead, he’s confronted by an unseen figure and attacked, with the next episode “Warning Signs” confirming he was murdered.

The Walking Dead’s “Warning Signs” also confirms it was Oceanside’s Beatrice (Briana Venskus) who killed Justin. It turns out a group from the Oceanside community has been taking revenge on Saviors who were responsible for a past massacre of their group, which included Justin, who killed Beatrice’s husband. McGowan made an impression during his appearance on the show, so it’s a shame the character was short-lived.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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