Robert Palmer Watkins Talks ‘The Walking Dead: World Beyond’ and That Gruesome Finale Fight Scene [Video]

Please note this interview contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: World Beyond Season 2, including the series finale.

Robert Palmer Watkins had one of the most grueling days of his career while working on The Walking Dead: World Beyond. It was also one of the most rewarding.

Best known for his role as Dillon Quartermaine on General Hospital, Watkins’ latest role is that of Lt. Frank Newton on The Walking Dead’s spinoff series.

I recently had the chance to chat with Watkins about his work on The Walking Dead: World Beyond, how his character compares to Dillon Quartermaine, and his upcoming single, aptly titled, “Walking Dead.” (You can watch the full video of our interview below.)

Watkins’ character, Lt. Frank Newton, on The Walking Dead: World Beyond is a soldier in the Civil Republic Military. Though he’s certainly a very different character from Dillon Quartermaine on General Hospital, Watkins noted some similarities. 

“[Dillon] was a really good guy, a nice guy, but he also was a Quartermaine. And he didn’t let people walk over him. If people did his family or his friends wrong, he definitely had something to say about it,” Watkins said.

“Lt. Frank Newton on The Walking Dead and Dillon Quartermaine, they’re definitely not pushovers. But Dillon Quartermaine was definitely a good guy, and a nice guy. Whereas Lt. Frank Newton is, although [he] thinks he’s doing what’s best for the world, his actions in order to carry out his end goal are pretty corrupt.”

Watch the full interview with Robert Palmer Watkins:

Watkins said he enjoyed getting to “play a bad guy” along with the opportunity to do some of his own stunt work. Though the truly dangerous stuff, he confirmed, was left to his stunt double. “It’s just so cool to see these stunt guys just throw themselves into danger, and make it look easy. I don’t think they get enough credit.”

“My stunt double, actually, was the same stunt double that stunt doubles Captain America, which is pretty awesome,” he added.

He did get to do a lot of his stunts, though, including what we see of his final gruesome fight scene with Felix (Nico Tortorella) on the series finale.

“I did the whole fight. And then they would swap me out and have the stunt double do the whole fight too, so it’s a combination of both of us,” he said. “Thank God, though that we had somebody jumping in and doing it with us, because it was so hot that day in Richmond, Virginia, where we were filming. And the uniforms — the costumes were so hot.”

“That was a blessing that we had stunt doubles because it was very, very hot,” he continued. “That was the hardest day of work that I’ve ever had as an actor, but it was the most rewarding once we finished.”

Of course, that fight scene doesn’t end well for Newton, and it’s pretty darn gruesome. “It was a lot of fun, sitting there and getting attacked by zombies after the fight. It was pretty gross. They had guts all hanging out of me,” Watkins recalled.

“I remember laying there on set, and I looked up at Matt Negrete, the writer and creator of the show — one of the creators of the show, and I said, ‘So does this mean I’m not gonna be in the movie franchise?’ as I’ve got like, guts and blood all over. Everybody laughed.”

In addition to acting, Watkins is also a musician, and he has a new single coming out soon. For his music, he goes by his middle name, “Palmer.” 

His first two singles, “Waiting,” and “Clean Cut,” are already out, and they can be found on most music services including Spotify and Apple Music. 

“I’m excited,” Watkins said. “My third single is coming out in the middle of December — not sure of the exact date yet. But that song is called “Walking Dead.” [It’s] not about zombies or anything, I just thought it was kind of cool to use to reference the show a little bit. But it’s actually not about that at all. It’s about a relationship.”

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The Walking Dead: World Beyond is currently streaming on AMC+.

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