The Whisperers finally took some action in the midseason finale of The Walking Dead where one of them killed off a fan favorite, Jesus (Tom Payne). After a few teases and a couple of appearances throughout the season, showrunner Angela Kang is excited for fans to watch the storyline unfold.

“Well, the second half of season 9, we really dive deeper into the story of the Whisperers,” Kang said. “At the end of the first half, obviously, we get this reveal that these zombies are not evolving, that they are some sort of strange human threat. We’ll get to know more about this group and their brutal survival of the fittest philosophy and how that really plays out in horrifying ways.”

The second half of the season is meant to have a few more surprises along the way. While taking into account this new group, the three communities – Alexandria, Hilltop, Kingdom – are still trying to figure out their own problems and resolving long-term conflictions.

“We will get to meet the amazing Samantha Morton as Alpha and Ryan Hurst as Beta, as our heroes are really grappling with how to deal with a threat that’s unlike anything they’ve ever faced with people with such a different philosophy,” Kang said. “They’re also just trying to figure out how they need to interact with each other in this world as they face more and more problems and challenges related to both this new threat and some of the other obstacles that they face in this world. We’ll continue to see the effects that nature has on our people, as things start to break down and they deal with the problems that come up as a result of these things.”

Fans are excited to see how our heroes will try to deal with the Whisperers as this story can lead to some defining moments with each character. For the last couple of seasons, the series has been lagging in development for both the characters and stories. With the new threat’s arrival, there will be some unexpected turns and more secrets out in the open.

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