‘The Walking Dead’: Josh McDermitt Opens Up About The Whisperers

Two characters have officially encountered the Whisperers on The Walking Dead, one of them being Josh McDermitt‘s Eugene.

To conclude Episode 9×06 on Sunday night, Eugene found himself covered in mud, hiding from a group of talking walkers beside Rosita. For McDermitt, this was no easy shoot, especially considering those walkers strolling above him weren’t offering up any real noises to terrify him in character.

“We had to cover ourselves in mud a couple of times for re-shoots and stuff,” McDermitt told EW. “And showering that out is like the hardest thing in the world because it’s not just getting a little muddy — you’re drenching yourself in mud and it just doesn’t come out. Like, you’re finding it in your ear and in different parts of your head and your hair days later. I’m like, ‘I shampooed six times, how is this not coming out?’ It was fun, man. I always love getting dirty and gross. I got the to cover myself in ash last season. I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things and play with different looks, but certainly that moment is very iconic from the comics and it was cool to be a part of that.”

While the script told McDermitt what was going on in this moment, his and Christian Serratos’ characters have no actual idea about what’s going on in their current scenario.

“These guys have no idea what’s happening,” McDermitt said. “I mean, we see Eugene in the beginning of the episode and he’s very confident with these walkers, because he knows what they are and he knows how to deal with them. And then all of a sudden, by the end of the episode, they’ve evolved enough in his mind that they’re talking and he’s like, ‘What the f—, man?’ This is a man of science, but first, they have to survive. You know they can’t get away fast enough. These things are not that fast and yet they keep gaining on Rosita and Eugene.”

The time jump had finally allowed Eugene to be comfortable killing walkers with ease, as was shown in the beginning of Episode 9×06. “Granted, he’s injured and he’s kind of slowing them up a bit, but they should still be able to get away and they’re just not able to,” McDermitt adds. “Around every turn, every corner, they’re being cut off and this is freaking them out. It’s a type of threat that he’s never really experienced before. So, that’s kind of the scariest part of it, is not knowing what the heck is going on.”

While the Whisperers will become a threat as The Walking Dead moves forward, Eugene fans have plenty to look forward to outside of the latest villains.

“In terms of Eugene, he’s going to try to figure out exactly how to survive, how to get free from these walkers that are on his tail and hopefully, since he’s a man of science, figure out exactly how they are able to talk and how they’re able to move faster, and kind of figure out where they are and cut them off at every turn,” McDermitt said. “I mean, it’s a very scary threat that I don’t think we’ve seen before on the show, at least from the character’s point of view. It’s an exciting place to be because there’s so much unknown.

“And then we have our communities that are also six years older and so it’s going to be fun to see what other changes have taken place throughout other communities. Obviously, what we see in episode 6 within Alexandria is that some things have happened within that six-year time jump and that it could lead us to believe that other things have happened in other communities. So it will be exciting to kind of unpack that and see how that impacts the story moving forward.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.