A new blood-red teaser for The Walking Dead seems to be filled with ominous foreshadowing hinting at multiple big deaths to come in the second half of Season 10. The promo shows the survivors — Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Aaron (Ross Marquand), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) — cast in the same red light covering Whisperers Alpha (Samantha Morton) and Beta (Ryan Hurst), along with haunting imagery evoking the border where Enid (Katelyn Nacon), Tara (Alanna Masterson), Henry (Matt Lintz) and seven other victims’ heads were gruesomely displayed atop pikes.
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Network AMC has sometimes included subtle hints at what’s to come in Walking Dead marketing materials. Key art and a poster released ahead of Season 9 showed a helicopter placed near Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who ultimately vanished aboard a CRM helicopter early on that season.
A closer look at the Season 10B teaser suggests grim fates in store for Alpha as well as couple Rosita and Gabriel, as evidenced by subtle imagery that includes ravens appearing only when Alpha, Rosita, and Gabriel are on screen.
In some cultures, ravens are associated with death or viewed as prophetic messengers. In Serbian epic poetry, ravens can represent aftermath of a bloody or significant battle — such as the Whisperer war teased in trailers — and sometimes act as the harbingers of tragic news announcing the death of a hero or heroes, often appearing when female characters receive word of a hero’s death.
Rosita and Gabriel appear together and are swarmed by ravens, possibly suggesting they both perish in a bloody battle to come. Alternatively, if going by the Serbian interpretation, it could mean Gabriel is fated to meet his gory end, with girlfriend Rosita receiving the news.
Ravens only appear one other time — with Alpha — who almost appears to be impaled by a border stake now showing masked Whisperer heads on display, a potential hint Alpha won’t escape her comic book fate.
“This is the thing about AMC and that world, and the comic book world. It’s like, you just don’t know what they have in store, and you don’t know how people’s stories [are going to go],” Morton said in a recent interview when asked if Alpha’s time is running out. “‘Cause I just had, [‘We Are the End of the World’] was a flashback episode, that I didn’t know was coming up. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, we get to go back to the past.’ So you just never know.”
TWD Season 10 returns with new episodes Feb. 23 on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.
