The Reapers are on the hunt for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in the first look at the next episode of The Walking Dead. When we see Maggie and Negan next in “Hunted,” airing September 5 on AMC or streaming early on AMC+, it’s after their group gets separated on the road to Meridian. A detour to a hidden supply depot in Arbor Hills is interrupted by the sudden appearance of the ultra-deadly Reapers, the masked killers who followed Maggie and the Wardens home to Virginia in Season 10. If they hope to survive their mission to Meridian, Negan and Maggie must work together and trust each other or become the next victims of the Reapers.
“We know that the Reapers came after Maggie and that she’d tangled with them before. Daryl was there, kind of seeing how dangerous they can be,” showrunner Angela Kang said on The Walking Dead Season 11 Preview Special, referring to a sniper’s attack on Maggie and Daryl (Norman Reedus) in the “Home Sweet Home” episode of Season 10. “I think there’s a lot that will be revealed about the Reapers, and so I don’t want to get too far ahead of it, but we know that they’re incredibly formidable.”
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“They are not people who are survivors that were like a teacher or a farmer or whatever and learned how to be tough,” added Kang, revealing the Reapers “were tough coming into the apocalypse. So they’re a different sort of group than our people have ever tangled with before.”
The new villains, and their shadowy leader Pope (Ritchie Coster), are not from the comic books. Kang previously revealed every member of this tight-knit squad of killers is “an incredibly brutal, organized warrior.”
“These are the pinnacle of human killers. It’s just a very formidable type of enemy to go up against,” Kang teased at San Diego Comic-Con in July. “They don’t rely on numbers and volume of people to fight against in order to kind of survive, so they’re a tight-knit group, and they’re just really formidable in a way that our characters don’t often come across.”
“Hunted” is now available for early access on AMC+ ahead of its Sunday, September 5 airing at 9/8c on the AMC channel.
READ: The Reapers Revealed in TWD Cliffhanger Ending
READ: Season 11 Trailer Hints an Old Friend Returns With the Reapers
READ: Who Are the Reapers? TWD Premiere Puts Scary New Villains on the Hunt
Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Walking Dead Season 11 airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.