Well-recognized actor C. Thomas Howell, best known for portraying Ponyboy Curtis in 1983’s The Outsiders, made a cameo appearance on Sunday’s The Walking Dead, “Stradivarius,” at the behest of friend and first-time director Michael Cudlitz.

“Tommy’s a buddy of mine. We needed someone who could ride a horse and act. Apparently, it’s a hard thing to find,” Cudlitz told Fan Fest.

“We had to get him cleared by stunts, we had to get him cleared by the insurance to make sure somebody could ride, so it tends to fall in the purvey of the stunt world. It’s not a common thing to have somebody be able to do those things, as far as gallop and speak.”

Howell appears in the closing moments of the episode as an armor-wearing, horseback-riding member of the Hilltop, who alerts Alexandrians Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Siddiq (Avi Nash) the colony has rescued an injured Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos).

“I knew my buddy was in town and half jokingly, I said ‘Hey, I got somebody who could do it.’ Our producer Tom Luse said, ‘Who?’ He said he’ll check with [showrunner] Angela [Kang], and that if it all works out, bring him in,” Cudlitz said.

Howell, who also appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man and Marvel-Netflix’s The Punisher, had just one condition for the cameo: the potential for a recurring role.

“I said ‘I’m doing my directorial debut, and I’d love for you to be part of it.’ He goes, ‘Mikey, I got one question for ya. Do I die?’ I said ‘No,’” Cudlitz said. “He said ‘So I could potentially come back some day, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘I’m in.’”

Episode 907 detailed the tense relationships between Alexandria and the Hilltop, which has since handed leadership duties to a reluctant Jesus (Tom Payne) following the quiet departure of Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who left sometime during a six-year time jump unbeknownst to Michonne.

That strife between the communities will continue to play out, Kang told EW, as audiences come to learn more about those six unseen years.

“We were starting off, Alexandria and Hilltop having kind of a freeze between them. They haven’t had much contact. There’s clearly just some beef that’s happened there,” Kang said, after “Stradivarius” hinted at a significantly strained relationship between the two women.

The Walking Dead airs its final new episode of 2018, “Evolution,” Sunday at 9/8c on AMC.