The Walking Dead midseason finale certainly left us with more questions than answers for showrunner Angela Kang. Who are the Whisperers? What does Negan’s escape mean? The last couple of seasons had been a little slow and boring for the fans’ liking. Season nine took an interesting turn when the Whispers were introduced.

The TV series is known to change up a few things in comparison to the comic book. “I’ll say that you know this is obviously an iconic storyline from the comic and there’s certainly memorable parts of the story that we want to tell, but it will be specific to the show,” Kang said.

Samantha Morton will be playing Alpha, the leader of the Whisperers. “I think on screen it is a pretty striking introduction, and then we will get into some meaty stuff with her pretty early in the back half of the season,” Kang teased of the villainess.

The Whisperers had been teased for quite some time for this season. They are humans who cut off the zombies’ faces to wear as a mask. Everyone would agree that this is a pretty smart tactic to use during a zombie apocalypse as a way of survival. Sadly, we had to see a beloved character get killed for them to finally step out. Jesus’s death was one of the most shocking and emotional for us to say goodbye to.

However, In the comics, Jesus is still alive. “I think that any time that path is not set, any time you can’t look at a comic book series and go, ‘oh, I know exactly what’s going to happen,’ it makes things a little bit more exciting,” executive producer Robert Kirkman said in March.

With these changes, we will surely have some more surprises and visitors along the way.

The Walking Dead returns on February 10 at 9 pm ET on AMC.