The series of ads served as fun little Easter eggs for fans who don’t take bathroom breaks during commercials or watch the commercial-free experience on AMC+. And according to Variety, that was the plan all along. It wasn’t a happy coincidence that four individual companies all reached out to former Walking Dead actors to play dead version of their characters. It was a coordinated effort from AMC Networks’ Content Room and Ryan Reynolds’ film production company Maximum Effort.

AMC’s Content Room is an initiative started at the network to produce fun little in-universe companions for its shows along with a handful of new original features. The division was behind the Rhea Seehorn-starring Cooper’s Bar and the digital shorts Better Call Saul Presents: Slippin’ Jimmy. Maximum Effort has had a hand in Ryan Reynolds’ many tongue-in-cheek commercials for his products like Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile along with his other entertainment properties like Deadpool and Welcome to Wrexham.

“Ads should be fun,” Reynolds told Variety. “The Walking Dead has generated more cultural conversation over the last decade than any other property and we wanted to honor that by bringing a few characters back from the dead in some fun contextual ads.” 

Ultimately, AMC and Maximum Effort settled on a pretty diverse variety of former Walking Dead characters to include. Andrea is obviously the crown jewel of the campaign and is recognized as such with her two commercial appearances. It was also nice to catch up with an all-time underrated cannibal in the form of Gareth. If we have but one regret here it’s that there apparently wasn’t enough room for T-Dog.