Laurie Holden was a key member of the Walking Dead ensemble for its first three seasons, and her character's death is one of the most memorable and horrifying that any have suffered to date. Holden hasn't done a whole lot on the small screen since leaving The Walking Dead in 2013, but she's now finally heading back to TV for a major role on a critically acclaimed series. She is joining the cast of The Americans to play what could be a fantastic character.
The actress will make her Americans debut in Season 5 as a character named Renee, who has just moved to town. Renee is no shrinking violet; her favorite pastimes include watching sports, drinking beer, and fly fishing. She'll be a love interest for Stan, who has had pretty bad luck in the romance department over the first four seasons of the show. They'll meet during a workout at the gym, and she may be what Stan needs to get over his past heartbreaks. Renee will be a recurring character, according to TVLine, so we should see plenty of Laurie Holden in The Americans.
Stan will come with an awful lot of skeletons in his closet, so it should be interesting to see how much Renee will actually learn about him. There's always the chance that she'll turn out to be another spy, given the fact that Stan isn't exactly much of a catch at the moment. He's still hung up on his wife, despite falling for and having an affair with a former KGB operative who was brutally killed in Season 4. Renee could be a regular woman who falls for a guy who happens to have a crazy job, or she could be an agent who's attracted to Stan for his secrets rather than his personality.
The fifth season will run for 13 episodes, which will match the episode count of the first four seasons. Production has already started, and the next batch of The Americans episodes is set to debut at some point in 2017. If it follows the patterns of years past, we might be able to expect Season 5 on our screens in winter or early spring next year.
There's no saying at this point if we'll get to see more of Laurie Holden as Renee beyond Season 5, but it should be nice to see her back in the flesh on the small screen for however long we get her. In the years since the end of The Walking Dead, she only appeared in three episodes of Major Crimes on TNT, and one episode of Chicago Fire on NBC. She did turn up in film for a role in Dumb and Dumber To, and you can hear her voice in Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad when it hits theaters in 2018.
Check out our fall TV schedule to see what you can watch while you wait for more Laurie Holden on screen. Some shows have been doing better than others so far, but there's still time to pick out what's worth tuning into this season.
