The Walking Dead Turns Another Comic Book Character Into a Whisperer

The Walking Dead is taking a second supporting character from the comic book and turning them into a Whisperer for the television show. Season 10 earlier revealed Alexandrian Dante (Juan Javier Cardenas) was a Whisperer spy sent by Alpha (Samantha Morton) to infiltrate and undermine the community, killing medic and new father Siddiq (Avi Nash), a change from Dante’s comic book counterpart who emerged as a Hilltop hero and the first romantic interest for colony leader Maggie since the death of husband Glenn. In “Look at the Flowers,” another comic book player, or one sharing a name with the character, is introduced as a member of the Whisperers.

In “Look at the Flowers,” Carol (Melissa McBride) places Alpha’s decapitated head on a spike while Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Alpha’s murderer, looks on at the Whisperer border where Carol discovered son Henry’s (Matt Lintz) head months earlier.

First look photos from the episode show Whisperer second in command Beta (Ryan Hurst) discovering the gruesome display with Rufus (Mark Sivertsen) alongside another, unnamed Whisperer.

Rufus is a later addition to creator Robert Kirkman’s comic books, where he’s introduced in issue #175 of The Walking Dead. There Rufus is an officer in the Commonwealth Army, the armored and heavily armed force tasked with protecting citizens of the Commonwealth, an Ohio-based network of settlements home to nearly 50,000 survivors.

That same issue sees a group of travelers — Eugene, Michonne, Magna, Yumiko, Siddiq, and the newly introduced “Princess” — confronted by Commonwealth soldiers while traveling from Virginia to connect with Stephanie, Eugene’s mysterious radio contact. In “Look at the Flowers,” it’s Eugene (Josh McDermitt), King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) of Hilltop who embark on this dangerous mission into the city.

The Commonwealth came in the final stretch of the comic book, which ended after 193 issues in July.

“I think there’s something freeing knowing that the end of the comic is coming,” showrunner Angela Kang previously told Deadline. “You know, luckily for this Whisperer story, we still have the comics. For Season 11, we still do have the basis in the Commonwealth story, so we haven’t run it out completely.”

Kang continued, “However, I think what’s actually been fun for us is since our array of characters now, especially like in the lead characters department, is so different from what it is in the comic book that it allows us to kind of improvise more in certain ways.”

Season 11 is currently being developed remotely amid industry wide shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.