The Walking Dead Showrunner on Midseason Premiere's Shocking Death Cliffhanger

Sunday night's episode of The Walking Dead left fans under the impression of a couple of key [...]

By Brandon Davis

Sunday night's episode of The Walking Dead left fans under the impression of a couple of key characters being killed off. Long time fans of the show, however, are rightfully skeptic of whether or not anyone has died at all. When characters are presumed dead from off screen deaths, The Walking Dead has proved that they might very well be alive. In this instance, it seems the stage has been set for a couple of characters to return somewhere down the line as their apparent deaths were off screen. Now, The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang has opened up about the midseason premiere's finale.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 10x09 (Squeeze) follow.

After narrowly escaping the cave, Carol's planted dynamite exploded and the cave's entrance imploded. Left behind in the implosion were Connie and Magna. Both are presumed dead by the others nearby.

"There are two people that got buried within the cave, whether alive or dead, our people don't know," Kang told Insider. "That triggers the next set of adventures for Daryl where he, on the search, is going to find some things that are unexpected. And I think emotionally, for our characters, just the question of whether they're alive or dead really has a lot of impact on them going forward. We will eventually find out the fate of Magna and Connie. But in the meantime, there's a lot of our characters such as Carol, who are living with the guilt, or people who are activated to try to find them, or just deal with the emotional fallout from it."

With Daryl particularly upset thinking that Connie is dead, the two groups of fans -- Caryl shippers and Donnie shippers -- are going to have a lot of choice words for one another in the aftermath of this possible tragedy. "We're not trying to pit any shippers against each other," Kang promised. "I think the interesting thing is, everybody ships Daryl with somebody else. So I think we've always tried to portray that Connie and Carol actually really like each other, and I think that we've shown that Carol thinks that Connie is maybe a good person for Daryl."

Of course, Connie actress Lauren Ridloff shipped off to London last year as a means to film Marvel's Eternals film. Like Danai Gurira before her, a Marvel movie might have been a factor in having her off of the show for a while. "There is some aspect of that that is true," Kang said. "But I think for the story, it's actually worked out really beautifully. So I think there's some really interesting stuff that came out of it for both Carol and Daryl, and she's a character that I think is leading with emotion for both of them. So sometimes those things that you have to do, to help out a beloved actor also work out in your favor."

As for whether or not Connie and Magna died, Kang won't rule just yet: "I don't want to get into a spoiler for it," she says. "So you're right. I can't really answer it, but I'll say that we will get a definitive answer at some point on both of them." Like Glenn before them, there will be some "waiting" involved with this story.

Do you think Magna and Connie are dead? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram or Twitter!

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC.

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