The Walking Dead’s Connie Returns for “Horror Movie” Season 11 Episode

Connie lives! The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang reveals what’s next for Lauren Ridloff‘s “resilient” zombie apocalypse survivor when she stars in her own “little horror movie” in Season 11. While trying to escape a cave teeming with walkers and Whisperers, an explosive cave-in traps Connie and Magna (Nadia Hilker) in the mid-season 10 episode “Squeeze.” When Magna makes it out, returning to Hilltop during a fiery battle in the Whisperer War, she reveals Connie disappeared in Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) zombie horde. Connie remains missing until the Season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” where it’s Bloodsworth Island dweller Virgil (Kevin Carroll) who finds her alive in the woods near Oceanside.

“We’re really excited to have Lauren Ridloff back as Connie. She went off and was in a different cinematic universe for a while,” showrunner Angela Kang said on the live Walking Dead Season 11 Preview Special, referring to Ridloff’s role as Marvel superhero Makkari in Eternals. “She’s been a resilient survivor out in the woods and we saw that she crossed with Virgil, and when we come upon them, they’re gonna be in some danger with some people who are really far gone.”

“I won’t say much more than that,” teased Kang, “but they get to kind of star in their own little horror movie within the show. So she’s been through a lot.”

Kelly (Angel Theory) has spent the time since searching for her sister, who is deaf, and in the Final Season trailer finds a message scrawled in Connie’s notepad: “TRAPPED WITH DEAD. WALKED WITH THEM FOR DAYS. NO LIGHT. NO FOOD. LITTLE WATER.” But Kelly isn’t the only one after Connie.

The trailer shows Connie and Virgil on the run from someone, and we’ll find out who in Season 11 Episode 6, “On the Inside.” According to the official synopsis for the episode, “Connie and Virgil hide in a house; Pope tests Daryl’s loyalty; Kelly searches for Connie.”

“I think for the story, it’s actually worked out really beautifully,” Kang previously told Insider about accomodating Ridloff’s schedule conflicts with Marvel’s Eternals. “So I think there’s some really interesting stuff that came out of it for both Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus), 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.”

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Final Season of The Walking Dead premieres August 22 on AMC.