The Walking Dead season 10 saw Lauren Cohan’s Maggie Rhee return after a year away from the show (or several years, in-universe), and she brought along a mysterious stranger with her. A metal-masked bodyguard with kama weapons helped Maggie save Gabriel from the Whisperers, but we didn’t learn anything about who this silent figure might be.
It’s a stumper for fans, as there’s no one like this Man in an Iron Mask in the comics. One popular theory, though, pointed to the stranger being Mercer from the Commonwealth. This seemed like a smart bet, as Mercer wields dual axes in the comics and is the head of the Commonwealth Militia, whose armored soldiers were also just introduced in the finale. However, we can officially rule him off the list of suspects now as showrunner Angela Kang has confirmed it’s not him.
While speaking to Insider, the EP clarified that it’s definitely not Mercer underneath that mask. As per what we already heard, though, Kang did go on to promise that the six bonus episodes we’re getting next year will confirm everything we want to know about the masked stranger, including how they connect to Maggie.
“I’ll say that we will learn more about this character and kind of who they are and what Maggie has been through more recently,” Kang said. “That’s going to be a big part of the story in the six episodes to come, but also in the season [11] as a whole to come.”
Those bonus episodes are in production now, something which was recently confirmed by a sneaky set pic that Norman Reedus shared on social media. This anthology-style mini-season has been designed to be made within COVID-19 safety protocols and will be smaller in scale and more character-focused than usual. The intention is that the episodes will act as a calm before the storm of the bumper-sized 24-episode final season, which lands later in 2021.
Tell us, though who do you think the masked man on The Walking Dead could be? Sound off with your thoughts down below.