Tom Payne Cuts His Luscious ‘Walking Dead’ Locks For New TV Role

When Tom Payne’s character in AMC’s The Walking Dead was killed off, Payne maintained he would keep his long hair in an effort to secure long-haired roles. However, with the recent announcement of him joining Fox’s Prodigal Son, he has now decided to cut his luscious locks.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Tom Payne replaced Finn Jones in Fox’s Prodigal Son. Jones had been signed on at the last minute but, after the initial table reading, it was decided to recast the role of Malcolm Bright. As a result of this, previous contender Tom Payne was called in as the replacement.

Last year, after his departure from The Walking Dead, Payne revealed he was interested in keeping his long locks as a way to, potentially, secure new acting roles.

“I’m gonna keep the hair for the time being because that’s actually two and a half years of growth and there aren’t that many male actors with long hair, so that might give me an advantage in some way,” Payne told Comic Book in December of last year.

However, it turned out, with his latest role, it was not his long hair which helped him to secure the role. So, as is the way with acting, it was time for Tom to shed his locks in order to become Malcolm Bright in Prodigal Son.

The actor took to his official Instagram account to alert fans to his creative decision to cut his hair.

The image only shows locks of his hair with the caption of “New Beginnings,” so there has yet to be an image of Tom without his trademark locks. Which means fans will have to keep an eye on his Instagram account or stay tuned for celebrity images of the actor at events to find out just how short his hair is now.

However, many of his fans replied to the image on Instagram to show their dismay at the loss of his long locks. And, considering the length of hair removed in the image, fans speculated that Tom would be sporting a much shorter hairstyle for Prodigal Son.

According to Variety, Prodigal Son will tell the story of Malcolm Bright, “an acclaimed criminal psychologist.”

“He knows how killers think, how their minds work. Why? His father was one of the worst — a notorious serial killer called ‘The Surgeon.’ He will use his twisted genius to help the NYPD solve crimes and stop killers, all while dealing with a manipulative mother, annoyingly normal sister, a homicidal father still looking to bond with his prodigal son, and his own constantly evolving neuroses.”

No premiere date has been set for Fox’s Prodigal Son.