‘The Walking Dead’ Adds Alpha, the Whisperers and More in Season 9

Kim Taylor-Foster
TV Comics
TV Comics The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has confirmed that The Whisperers will appear in Season 9 of the zombie series. At The Walking Dead’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, Kirkman referred to the trailer shown to the crowd at the start of the event in which the final shot shows some walkers that appear to be murmuring. Rosita and her companion seem particularly terrified and conceal themselves with mud in a ditch.

The Whisperers Are Coming

The Whisperers - The Walking Dead
Fans will finally get to see the whisperers on the small screen.

“It seemed like there was a whispering zombie at the end of the trailer, which to me is very strange, I want to know what’s going on there,” he said. And if that wasn’t clear enough, he also added that Fantastic Beasts and Minority Report actress Samantha Morton would be joining the cast as Alpha.

The Whisperers are prominent in the comic books as a group of antagonists who wear the skins of the dead in order to move amongst the walkers. Alpha leads the group. Scott M. Gimple, who oversees The Walking Dead universe, told an SDCC press conference later that we may find out who is cast as Alpha’s second-in-command, Beta, soon.

Even More Characters

Earl Sutton - The Walking Dead
Fans also have Earl Sutton to look forward to this season.

New showrunner Angela Kang also announced some other new characters and cast members during the panel, which was attended by outgoing showrunner Scott M Gimple, Executive Producers Dave Alpert, Gale Ann Hurd, and Greg Nicotero, as well as cast members Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Norman Reedus.

Fans of the comic books can look forward to seeing Earl the Blacksmith introduced in Season 9, as well as the Hilltop’s Tammy Rose who will be played by Brett Butler. Savior Jed will also appear. He’s played by Rhys Coiro. Then there’s Justin, played by Zach McGowan. Another Fantastic Beasts star, Dan Fogler, also joins the cast as Luke.

The Future of the Series

It's time to say goodbye to Rick.

Season 9 will feature a time jump which sees the characters sometime after the close of Season 8 and the end of All Out War. It will follow their attempts to rebuild in the face of a crumbling infrastructure, where they revert to horses for transport and other more primitive ways of living.

Andrew Lincoln, who leaves the show in Season 9, took the opportunity to bid goodbye to the fans, saying, “I’m going to take a break for a while. I do have a real family and it is time for me to go home.”

The Walking Dead Season 9 premieres on October 7, 2018.

Kim Taylor-Foster
Kim Taylor-Foster is Entertainment Editor for Fandom in the UK. She was raised on an unsteady diet of video nasties and violent action flicks.