The Walking Dead: Everything You Need To Know About The Whisperers

Update: The Walking Dead's mid-season finale introduces the Whisperers more fully, setting the stage for them to become the main villains for the back half of Season 9. Original article follows, and contains spoilers for both The Walking Dead Season 9 and the graphic novels.

The world of The Walking Dead has already moved on from Rick Grimes. With a six-year time jump, there's a lot of distance between Rick and his fellow survivors, and apart from Michonne the latest episode doesn't do too much to reference him. Instead of looking to the past, it's casting its eyes to the future, with the arrival of the show's major new villains.

At the end of Who Are You Now?, Eugene and Rosita find themselves on the run from a giant herd of walkers. They manage to get themselves into a ditch and frantically cover themselves with mud, only just escaping the attention of the undead, until there's a big twist: the walkers are talking.

One of them asks "Where are they?" to which another responds: "They must be close... Don't let them get away."

It's a chilling moment, and freaks out not just Eugene and Rosita, but presumably a lot of viewers too. However, the walkers aren't suddenly capable of speech - instead, this is the show's new Big Bad, The Whisperers. But who are they, and just what to do they want?