The Ones Who Live teases new walker variant for episode 5

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is a smart and complex story focused on Rick and Michonne, two characters portrayed by Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira. The latest Walking Dead spinoff is an epic love story of two characters who have been parted for years. The spinoff introduced new weapons, personalities, and, of course, new members of the undead.

In Walking Dead lore, zombie culture doesn't exist. Creator Robert Kirkman explains that in the series, the word zombie has been omitted, as has zombie fiction. This explains why, during the early seasons, no one knew how to kill what was dubbed walkers. It would have been too easy for the characters to remark didn't exist in this world. And really, for this story to work, you can't just have people saying, 'You shoot them in the head, y'know... just like the zombies from the Romero movies!' (Robert Kirkman - The Walking Dead deluxe #30). This has also allowed for many of the series to feature new "variant" walkers who don't follow the traditional Walking Dead slow-moving undead.

The final season of TWD featured variants that were fast-moving, could scale fences, and more reminiscent of walkers from early seasons. Dead City utilized the undead as a resource to make fuel. The Daryl Dixon spinoff featured freaky variants that spewed acid and lightning-fast ones that could tear a person to shreds with extreme ease.

"“That is what the world has to do. That’s the premise. You have to find new ways for people to figure out how to survive and new ways that things can go wrong with the walkers, even when a walker is already a walker. That’s how the ball is kept in the air . You constantly have to keep people going, “Okay, I’ve never seen that before and that grossed me out more than anything I’ve ever seen .” That’s how we have to keep the ball in the air. When that happens, we’re winning.”"

- Danai Gurira referencing Dead City

The Ones Who Live episode 5

The latest spinoff, The Ones Who Live, features several new interesting walkers or delts, as the CRM refers to them. In an interview with Collider some of these are explained by Lincoln and Gurira and tease a new variant featured in episode 5.

Lincoln first mentions the glowing ones with sparks featured during the opening of episode one. This is the work of Greg Nicotero's KNB SFX group. These walkers were being killed in the dark, and Rick was able to use one of them to cauterize the wound left after chopping off his own hand.

The Gasman Walker featured in episode 2 likely has a great backstory, which could be featured in an episode of Tales of the Walking Dead. This walker was interesting because of his numerous gas cans and shirt that read, "Gasman, let me help you." Michonne was able to use him to blow up some walkers, and in a bit of humor, his head flew at her and knocked her off her horse.

The trailer (below) for the fifth episode of The Ones Who Live sees Michonne against something never seen before. At about the 13 mark, Michonne bashes a walker in the head, and her weapon appears to bounce off; she comments, "Seems like stone." The walker is covered in cement or something, preventing her from issuing the fatal head wound. This could be a random walker, but Lincoln's comment to Collider appears to tease something new, which is always exciting.

" In episode five, there are very specific walkers that, because of the environment and where they are, have a bit of comedic value"

- Andrew Lincoln via Collider

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