The Walking Dead Director Teases a Carol vs. Alpha Fight Is “Pretty Likely”

Carol (Melissa McBride) and Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton) meeting in battle is "pretty likely," according to director and executive producer Greg Nicotero, who says Carol has a clear vendetta against the woman who murdered her son.

"Knowing Carol's history, I think [a smackdown is] pretty likely," Nicotero told TVLine at the Saturn Awards. "She really doesn't take things lying down." Though Carol spent months at sea in an attempt to escape her grief and denies best friend Daryl's (Norman Reedus) theory she was hunting Alpha, Nicotero said "she's definitely got a vendetta."

The survivors "all do," Nicotero added, referring to Alpha's attack on the communities that left ten dead, including Enid (Katelyn Nacon) and Tara (Alanna Masterson) of Hilltop.

"Last season, the communities had sort of lost contact with each other," Nicotero pointed out, adding it was only later that Michonne (Danai Gurira) "realized that if she had kept the communities together, they may have noticed Alpha."

Months after the spikes slaying, Michonne won't repeat that same mistake. Through gritted teeth, the Alexandria leader abides by Alpha's laws for the safety of her people — and that means having to keep Carol in check, even as the grieving mother says of Alpha, "The bitch has to die."

Audiences won't have long to wait for another face-to-face between Carol and Alpha, who share a particularly chilling interaction in 10x03, "Ghosts." It's part of what McBride told ComicBook.com is an unexpected and emotional story for Carol in year 10.

"I'll say that... it's interesting, from a writing perspective, we've definitely been delving into just the duality of these two characters and the way that they've had certain paths in life and diverged, in terms of kind of what their philosophy of the world is," showrunner Angela Kang teased during July's San Diego Comic-Con. "But they're both two incredibly powerful women, who just happen to be on opposite sides of this kind of epic struggle that is happening between our people and the Whisperers. So there's just some really cool stuff up ahead. I think Melissa is amazing, as is Samantha, so they are formidable forces to go up against each other."

It is now Spring, a few months after the end of Season 9, when our group of survivors dared to cross into Whisperer territory during the harsh winter. The collected communities are still dealing with the effects of Alpha's horrific display of power, reluctantly respecting the new borderlines being imposed on them, all while organizing themselves into a militia-style fighting force, preparing for a battle that may be unavoidable. But the Whisperers are a threat unlike any they have ever faced. Backed by a massive horde of the dead, the Whisperers are seemingly a fight the survivors cannot win. The question of what to do and the fear it breeds will infect the communities and give rise to paranoia, propaganda, secret agendas, and infighting that will test them as individuals and as a society. The very idea of whether civilization can survive in a world filled with the dead hangs in the balance.

Nicotero directs the first two episodes of the season. 10x01, "Lines We Cross," premieres Sunday, October 6 and is followed by the Whisperer-focused 10x02, "We Are the End of the World," on Oct. 13. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.