A lot of people have been buzzing about, talking about Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s zombie masterpiece The Walking Dead.

What not a lot of people have been talking about is casting of the lead, Rick Grimes.

Big Shiny Robot! has talked to a few different sources about names that are in the ring for the series and we’re pretty happy.  There are a couple of sources we talked to with varying reliability, but these names all made a lot of sense, so we want to throw these out there and get the conversation going.  If you don’t know about Walking Dead and have never read it, it’s perhaps one of the best comics being published today.  Grab the first trade from Amazon right here and you won’t regret it.

The most reliable sources point us to Jamie Bamber as in the running for Rick.  You might remember him from Battlestar Galactica playing Lee Adama.

I’m in the midst of watching BSG for the first time now and I have to say, this would be a great choice.  He’s a strong actor, has the right look and handles televised drama really well.

Next on the list is Mark Pellegrino, who is on Dexter and plays Jacob on Lost.

He has a little bit less of the look, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t work.  He’s an incredibly talented actor and any show would do well with him at the helm.  And really, doesn’t he look like a guy that would make the hard choices in a zombie apocolypse?

And then the last name on the list.  Stuart Townsend.  The “would-be”  King of Middle Earth.  The “would-be” Asgardian….

I’m assuming he could work, but I haven’t seen him in much of anything as he seems to always get replaced at the last minute.  If he does get cast, I’d expect that to happen again.  But who knows.

As far as all three of these possibilities, I’d actually be really happy with any of them.

What do you guys think?