'The Walking Dead': AMC promotes Lauren Cohan to series regular

Just weeks before AMC's hit zombie series "The Walking Dead" is set to go into production on Season 3, Lauren Cohan -- who plays Maggie on the show based on Robert Kirkman's comic books -- has been promoted to a series regular.

Cohan's character recurred throughout Season 2 -- she's the daughter of Herschel (Scott Wilson) on whose farm Rick Grimes and his band of survivors found temporary refuge. Along the way, she fell into a romance with Glenn (Steven Yeun).

Details about Season 3 are slowly filling in (for anyone interested in spoilers, check out our Monday Kickstart for more details), but the only other definite casting news out of Season 3 are the already announced additions of actor David Morrissey as The Governor character and Danai Gurira as Michonne.

"The Walking Dead" is AMC's highest rated show and drew a record 9 million viewers.