Did 'The Walking Dead' Just Tease The Whisperers Nearby?

Though the war with Negan seems to be merely half way through, The Walking Dead may have set up its next big bad in Episode 8x07.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead's Time for After episode follow!

In Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes made his first trip to the Saviors' Sanctuary since unleashing a massive herd of walkers on their doorstep. Of course, his arrival wasn't as pleasant as he would've hope, seeing Daryl's rogue plan ultimately freed the Saviors from the confinement.

However, before seeing the herd was completely missing from the Sanctuary's yard, Rick saw what may have been a tease of the Whisperers.

First of all, an iconic death from The Walking Dead comics which was drawn on the first pages of the Whisperer War story was seen as a body hung from the water tower. This dead sniper lookout wasn't Father Gabriel but met a near exact doom as Father Gabriel did in The Walking Dead at the hands of Beta and his Whisperer army.

Furthering the tease of the Whisperers, however, was the fact that this dead body had no face. There were three walkers around the hanging corpse having themselves a feast but, typically, walkers go for the meatier parts of the body when having a snack. This man's face was completely gone, leaving only an exposed bloody appearance where his skin once was. The man was hanging at a height which might cause these walkers to go for his face similar to how they ripped Noah's away but they appeared to have done most of their work on his forearm and throat areas.

Of course, fans of The Walking Dead comics know the Whisperers to wear faces of the dead in order to blend in with those aimlessly wandering the earth. Theories and speculation will certainly be aplenty regarding whether or not a Whisperer took this sniper's face and is currently wearing it ahead of the group's true arrival on the AMC series.

In fact, this is not the first time The Walking Dead TV series has made reference to the Whisperer stories from its comic book source material. Earlier, the Savior character Gunther made a reference to King Ezekiel's death at the hands of the Whisperers when attempting to bring the character to Negan.

As for whether or not the Whisperers will actually appear on the AMC series any time soon is unknown as the cast and producers refuse to give any teases of the group's arrival.

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