The Walking Dead’s New Walkers In The Ones Who Live Explained By Andrew Lincoln & Danai Gurira

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode 4!

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live stars Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira have opened up about the new Walkers featured throughout the show – and one variant to expect in the future. While the series has been focused on Rick and Michonne’s escape from the CRM, it has also featured a variety of interesting zombies. This includes flaming Walkers in episode 1 and a zombie carrying a multitude of gas canisters on its body in episode 2.

Speaking with Collider, Lincoln and Gurira explained the decision to have different types of zombies scattered throughout episodes of The Ones Who Live. The actors explained their purpose in the story while also teasing a new version of Walkers that will show up in episode 5. Check out what Lincoln and Gurira had to say below:

Andrew Lincoln: When we did the opening sequence in episode one, we had the glowing ones, the flaming ones, that had sparks, the work KNB, Greg Nicotero’s company, did was amazing. The combination of the practical and the visual effects was amazing. It’s just improved and improved in the universe. In episode five, there are very specific walkers that, because of the environment and where they are, have a bit of comedic value. They try to put flavors in it. That’s Scott Gimple and Greg Nicotero.

I loved [the gas man zombie]. I thought it was such a funny gag. The exploding head that knocks you out, I love that weird, heightened humor. They’re always trying to push the boundaries of what hasn’t been done. It happens in the writers’ room as well, with all these guys who are showrunners in their own franchise in the world. They’re brilliant. Their brains are so smart. They’ve got an encyclopedic reference point and they go, “Okay, what about this?,” but it’s always about pushing the characters.

Danai Gurira: 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.

How Many More Zombie Variants Will Show Up In The Ones Who Live?

The Ones Who Live‘s fiery zombies indicate how the variant Walkers shown in the spinoff are more environmental than they are larger developments in the zombie population. Unlike the manmade variants in Daryl Dixon, the zombies in Rick and Michonne’s series appear to be products of their environment. This opens the door for plenty of different types of Walkers with unique attributes associated with their locations.

As teased by Lincoln, The Ones Who Live episode 5 trailer reveals zombies that appear to have stone growing on their heads. This makes them impossible to harm with conventional weapons, likely forcing Rick and Michonne to get creative with their kill methods. By providing new types of zombies, it makes chance encounters with them unpredictable while showing they’re still as much a threat as human groups like the CRM.

Even though there’s only two episodes left in the show, it’s possible The Ones Who Live will introduce even more variant zombies to the show before it’s over. While it’s unclear if Daryl Dixon‘s variants are somehow connected to the CRM, that is another direction the series could go with them. A massive human group may be the biggest obstacle Rick and Michonne have to face, but that doesn’t mean the zombies won’t prove to be threatening either.