Eagle-eyed "The Walking Dead" fans may have noticed a familiar face on last night's episode of the zombie drama: Johnny Depp. But before you frantically rewind trying to find the actor, you should know that it wasn't actually Depp himself who made an appearance -- just his likeness.

The sly cameo came about thanks to longtime "Walking Dead" makeup master and executive producer Greg Nicotero, who also directed last night's installment, "Not Tomorrow Yet." In the scene where Rick, Jesus, and Andy are trying to decide which severed zombie head to pass off as Gregory's, in an effort to gain access to the Saviors's compound, audiences see three heads sitting on the ground; it turns out that the one on the far right is actually based on a mold of Depp's face.

Depp had no idea that he'd be appearing on the episode, though, since the use of his image was more of a coincidence than an ode to (or kiss off of) the idiosyncratic actor. As Nicotero explained to Entertainment Weekly, it was mostly due to some extra props lying around.

"I think we had sculpted an emaciated version of a dummy head for something and we used Johnny Depp's head as a basis just for a clay sculpt," the producer told EW. When they needed three dummy heads for the episode, they used a mold of Nicotero's own noggin to fill in for the one ultimately chosen to pass off as Gregory, and used the existing Depp head as another one of the featured options.

There's no word yet from Depp on whether or not he approves of the cameo, but apparently Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl, was a fan of Nicotero's work.

"Norman kept saying he wanted the heads when we were done shooting," Nicotero told EW.

[via: Entertainment Weekly, h/t Uproxx]

Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC; AMC/Uproxx