Did The Walking Dead Just Introduce The Whisperers?

03/05/2017 09:46 pm EST

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 12 follow.

Any time a unique batch of walkers pops up on The Walking Dead, fans of the AMC series suspect that the team behind the show is introducing the Whisperers ahead of their introduction in Robert Kirkman's comics.

Sunday's Say Yes episode saw a group of walkers stumbling in Rick's direction, however, upon being released on this carnival from some sort of holding area, viewers noticed the walkers had their hands tied together. It was an interesting twist to some sort of event that had taken place in yard of this once schoolyard.

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Was this actually a tease of the Whisperers?

Probably not. ComicBook.com caught up with the crew behind the AMC series to get to the bottom of the issue and they appear to rule out any possibility of the Whisperers having been introduced in Sunday night's episode.

When ComicBook.com asked Greg Nicotero whether or not this group was the Whisperers, the executive producer of the series skirted the topic, but sounds to be offering a negative ruling on the field.

"I think it's safe for us to say that there are a lot of people that have been taken prisoner throughout the apocalypse," Nicotero said of the walkers with their hands tied. "And this particular place, I think that it was taken much earlier in the apocalypse, so a lot of the Walkers and a lot of the Zombies have been there for quite a while.

That's not to say the Whisperers won't arrive early, however. "It's not impossible that the Whisperers could come along or aspects of them could come along earlier than the timeline of the book, but certainly not this early," showrunner Scott Gimple told ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview earlier in Season 7.

For more information on this issue and whether or not the Whisperers were/will be introduced on AMC's The Walking Dead, tune into After the Dead live on The Walking Dead on ComicBook.com's Facebook page live at 10 pm ET.

For the fans who have not read the comics, the Whisperers are a savage group who live with no rules other than obeying their Alpha's orders. Anything else goes. They were the skin of the dead across their faces and bodies, keeping their conversations to a whisper in an effort to blend in with the dead and move with herds. They do not call one specific place home but, instead, roam the woods and surrounding areas of the Alexandria and Hilltop communities. First introduced in issue #130, the wrath of the Whisperers is still being felt in The Walking Dead's most recent issue.

MORE WALKING DEAD: What Happens To Dwight In The Comics? / What Happens To Eugene In The Comics? / Who Dies In Hostiles And Calamities? / Austin Amelio Calls Season 7 Finale A Fulfilling Turning Point

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.

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