‘Walker: Independence’ Retrospective: An Interview with Sheelin Choksey

In 2022, a prequel to The CW’s Walker, titled Walker: Independence debuted. Set in the late 1800s, this beautiful tale, which consisted of 13 episodes, told the story of Abby Walker, whose husband, Liam, is murdered. Abby gets rescued and brought to a nearby town, Independence, as the search for her husband’s killer intensifies and she’s aided by the people she meets along the way. The show was beautifully written and filmed, quickly becoming loved by so many people.

Sadly, the show was canceled after one season after The CW was bought by Nexstar, who decided to go in a different direction with their programming.

When the show was canceled in 2023, the WGA and SAG strikes occurred soon after, and there wasn’t much time for the people involved — or the fandom — to say goodbye.

Now that the strikes are resolved, I got the chance to talk to many of the cast and crew behind Walker: Independence, reflecting on their time on the show, and what they take away from it now, years later.

Brand new interviews will be released throughout the next few weeks, so make sure to keep checking back to read interviews from the cast and crew.

Today, we’re launching the Walker: Independence retrospective with Sheelin (Shel) Choksey. Shel was a co-executive producer on the series as well as as a director, having directed episode 4 “Pax Romana”, episode 9 “Strange Bedfellows”, and episode 12 “How We Got Here”.

Editors note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Nerds and Beyond: Let’s start from the beginning. How did you get involved with Walker: Independence?

Sheelin Choksey: I knew Laura Terry, (and loved her!) from another project that we worked on together. Plus, I was floating around in the CW universe at the time, and I got a call about a Walker spinoff/prequel. I had no idea what that would be  – but then when I talked to the creatives during the interview process and watched the pilot written by Seamus Fahey and directed by Larry Teng, I was pretty blown away. It didn’t feel it looked like a lot of TV that you see out there. It definitely felt like a Sergio Leone western from yesteryear – widescreen, extremely cinematic, and selectively shot. You could feel the level of filmmaking was formidable.  

Nerds and Beyond: Were you on any of the casting sessions? If so, how did those go? Were there any funny moments in those sessions – or ones that you were like, “oh, that’s our person!” 

Shel: I was in on casting from Episode 2 and on so all the series regulars were already cast. Of course, as the season went on, all of the casting was on Zoom, for our episodic and recurring cast members. My awful memory prevents me from remembering most of those moments (besides being blown away by many of the performances), but what I loved was when we did chemistry readings with our top choices for certain roles. Example: when we were casting Tom Davison’s brother we had Greg and Tim read together – they flew off the computer screen – it was astonishing! It was like, “Yeah…they are brothers…!”

Nerds and Beyond: What was it like being on the set for the first time and seeing everything brought to life?

Shel: New Mexico provides great crew members – and we imported our Director of Photography(s) from LA and they were top notch but I feel the show’s ‘wow’ factor (besides the photography) was the art department.  

The art department on this show was of the most talented I’ve ever worked with. The stage builds and the way the sets were dressed never ceased to amaze me – the scope of the sets and the textures and richness of the set dressing was a masterpiece – look carefully for this in Kai’s Restaurant or Hagan’s. Marvelous work.

Nerds and Beyond: What was your favorite storyline from the series?

Shel: I loved Kai’s past and secret identity. Felt like a comic book and a great one at that!

Nerds and Beyond: Visually, what was your favorite scene that was filmed?

Shel: I was lucky enough to helm a song and dance number in episode 4 where the Kate character blows the roof off of Hagan’s as she is fueled by her anger toward Tom Davidson, the ‘antagonist’ of the series. She sings and dances a mocking rebuke of Tom in front of a packed house. The choreography was expert and the song/lyrics were brilliantly performed by Katie Findlay, which is no surprise. And I got to get my ‘Bollywood’ on a little so it was super fun to create this sequence. Hard to describe, you just have to watch it!

Nerds and Beyond: The Walker: Independence fandom grew as the season progressed, but there was also a lot of intrigue right from the beginning, seeing that it was a prequel from an already-established show. What was your reaction as the fandom grew with the show and started getting more and more attention?

Shel: It was super cool and I felt super deserved. The writing was marvelous with stories that worked on their own but with Easter eggs from the mothership series which helped create a pretty fascinating connection with the audience. I was thrilled to be a part of it. Everything the characters did felt significant because it spoke to an already-established hit show.

Nerds and Beyond: One of my favorite scenes was from “Strange Bedfellows”, which you directed, which was Kai doing the fight in between the clotheslines. The shots were incredible, and it was so well done. Can you talk more about setting that up and filming it?

Shel: Well, thank you, first of all. Also, the concept on a writing level was already pretty great so I could just run with it. Think about it – a character who is actually a total badass who works as a launderer now and takes pride in his work is attacked where he earns his living – amongst the fabric and clotheslines that he so carefully takes care of.   It’s his new life and old, symbolically in a conflict together – visually shown. I am very proud of all of our work on this sequence which was carefully storyboarded – but again the sets were gorgeous and our stunt teams were top notch – I thought it was a huge accomplishment. [It] felt like an all-day shoot but really we only had 3 or 4 hours for it – and Lawrence is an inspiration of a thoughtful controlled actor that can also basically do all of his own stunts. Multi-talented.  The sequence only works because he is at the center of it.

Nerds and Beyond: You also directed my favorite episode of the series, episode 12, “How We Got Here”. That scene with Philemon and Justin under the tree was beautiful, and the voiceover and how it was woven in between the story was inspiring (I could gush about the whole episode, truly). Can you talk more about directing that episode, and maybe your favorite scene(s) from it?

Shel: Again, thank you, and it starts with the writing. That episode was basically a one-hour poem – on the page, it flowed in and out of flashbacks and VO seamlessly. That scene under the tree was amazing for me as we found this great set on our own property. I knew it needed to be simple in staging but complicated in emotion. Two minorities in a new colonial world that has little room for them, making choices on a personal level and throwing out allegiances that they were forced into. We see opposing soldiers become friends.   

I also loved the scene at the wagon depot as we got to leave our regular town at Bonanza and go to another period town in another part of the NM – nice for some variety – and once again, look how our art department went to work.

Lastly, the teepee scene where Philemon’s character is informed his wife has passed – very artful scene, which I believe we pulled off in a ‘oner’ with maybe an insert shot as well. My job was to construct a shot that told the whole story and then get out of the way of the actors! 🙂

Nerds and Beyond: What was your favorite part about being an EP and director on Walker: Independence?

Shel: It was one of the most rewarding directorial and producorial experiences of my life. It just felt right – creatively and on a human interaction level. We all loved each other and truly Santa Fe, New Mexico is an artist colony that has a lot of love in it. We absorbed that and we used that in the making of this season. It was pretty magical.

Nerds and Beyond: Did you get to keep anything from the set?

Shel: I got my chair back – which I have mounted up high in my home.

Nerds and Beyond: At the end of the day, when you look back on your experience on Walker: Independence, what do you take away from it?

Shel: I take away that you can have it all. Caring relationships with all the crew and cast while making deep creative and challenging works, working tough hours, and getting through the day WITH each other – carrying each other when we need to.

Nerds and Beyond: Anything you’d love to say to the fans of Walker: Independence?

Shel: Thank you so much for caring – I know it was short-lived but I think that one season we did was nearly perfect. And I’m so glad we were all a part of it.