The Walking Dead Alpha appears in a new teaser trailer for 9B

Fans of The Walking Dead finally get to see Alpha in the flesh in a new teaser for season 9B.

The Walking Dead first introduced The Whisperers in the season 9 midseason finale when Jesus was killed by a walker that wasn’t a walker but a Whisperer. After the release of a character portrait of the leader of The Whisperers, Alpha, today EW released an exclusive teaser trailer showing Alpha making herself a mask from the skin and hair of a walker. It’s gruesome and also mesmerizing and it shows that The Walking Dead fans are not prepared for what is coming in the second half of season 9. Here’s Alpha in all her gruesome glory:

Alpha, played by renowned actress Samantha Morton, is the leader of The Whisperers. The Whisperers are a community of survivors but they are unlike any community the other survivors have ever seen. The Whisperers believe that the apocalypse was the catalyst for the next evolution of human beings and they embrace the feral nature of the world as it exists now.

The Whisperers are a pack like society where the strongest rule. Alpha is the leader and Beta is her second in command. The others in the community don’t have names because they believe that names are unnecessary. Alpha has a daughter, Lydia, who will play a major role in coming Whisperers story arc.

The members of The Whisperers wear masks made of the skins of walkers so that they can move among the walkers undetected. They shamble like walkers and they speak to each other in hissing guttural moans like walker moans.

The Biggest Threat The Walking Dead Survivors Have Faced

Alpha and The Whisperers are not like any threat that the survivors have faced before. They are more bloodthirsty than any other villain and they have no moral compass that prevents them from killing. They operate at the level of animals, but with human coldness and cunning. Alpha is going to be one villain that the groups may not be able to defeat.

Not only do the survivors have to worry about the fighting skill of Alpha, Beta, and the others they also have to deal with the fact that because The Whisperers mix in with the walkers it’s very difficult to tell which are walkers and which are human.

On top of that The Whisperers can direct herds and lead thousands of walkers into the communities because they can move safely among the walkers. To face this new terrifying threat all of the communities are going to have to work together. And even then they may not make it.

The Walking Dead returns on February 10th and based on this teaser since 9B is going to be the start of the most intense arc yet on The Walking Dead.