‘The Walking Dead’ 910 Preview Teases Another New Romance

The Walking Dead looks to adapt the comic book romance that played out between Carl Grimes and Lydia of the Whisperers.

Henry (Matt Lintz) and Lydia (Cassidy McClincy), both prisoners in the Hilltop jail, can be spotted holding hands in the preview for Sunday’s 910, ‘Omega.’

In the books, Carl meets a captured Lydia when he’s jailed for brutally beating a gang of Hilltop bullies. He quickly forms a bond with the crying and frightened Lydia, and is later entrusted as her guardian when both teens are released.

The relationship between Carl and Lydia quickly grows romantic, even as their respective factions — Alexandria-slash-Hilltop and the Whisperers — become embroiled in a deadly conflict with major casualties on both sides.

“There may be [something brewing there],” showrunner Angela Kang told EW of Henry and Lydia, who were steered towards opening up to one another by furious interrogator Daryl (Norman Reedus).

“I think it’s something that’s interesting in our world is there’s not a lot of young people in it. A lot of them didn’t make it, and so as with anybody, it’s sort of like how many people are there that are our peers that you can connect with?”

Henry’s growing involvement with Lydia could see adopted parents Carol (Melissa McBride) and King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) clash with Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton), who has already retaliated against the survivors by capturing her own prisoners, Hilltop’s Alden (Callan McAuliffe) and Luke (Dan Fogler).

“We thought how interesting that really the adopted child of Carol and Ezekiel, who’s now being watched over by Daryl, intersects with this person who is from a completely different kind of lifestyle in the apocalypse,” Kang said of Lydia, who has been forced to adopt the Whisperers’ savage lifestyle.

“Henry has grown up loved, and relatively protected, and safe, and she has been out there in the wild. We just think that that’s an interesting pairing, so yeah, there will be some story to come with those two.”

Kang previously warned the Whisperers storyline will be remixed as it unfolds in the television show, and later remarked Henry — who is not in the books — is not a stand-in for Carl, but does allow for the filmmakers to play out plotlines they otherwise would have lost after Carl’s Season Eight death.

“Obviously, all of that plays differently because Henry is a different kind of kid in the show than Carl was in the comic at this point. He’s had a different upbringing. He’s had a bit of a sheltered life. He’s also faced different kinds of things,” Kang told EW.

“We just wanted to make sure that anything that we take from the comic that maybe once was part of Carl’s storyline, it’s a little different when you have Henry playing it. We don’t intend for it to be exactly the same.”

The Walking Dead 910, ‘Omega,’ premieres Sunday, February 17 at 9/8c on AMC.