‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9, Spoilers, News & Update: Who are the New Villains of the Series?

“The Walking Dead” Season 9 appears to have successfully injected new life into the post-apocalyptic drama if the ratings are anything to go by. Although a lot of fans and critics have announced that the series is going to die when Rick (Andrew Lincoln) finally leaves the show, it seems that it isn’t done just yet.

The ratings of the latest episode of “The Walking Dead” Season 9 is only down by 1 percent compare to last week’s number. It also managed to pull in 5.4 million viewers even without Rick leading the crew, the very first for the zombie drama, Digital Spy reported.

While there’s no definite answer why such drastic negative results were not seen in “Who Are You Now,” it could be because of varying factors. One of which is the new villains of “The Walking Dead” Season 9.

Initially, fans thought that the undead has now evolved into sentient creatures that are able to communicate with each other. But it turns out that the voices that they heard were coming from people, a group that is known to comic readers as The Whisperers. These twisted individuals are capable of manipulating the undead and herding them to directions that they see fit by donning the skin of the deceased and integrating themselves into the horde. “The Walking Dead” Season 9 will have Michonne (Danai Gurira), Daryl (Norman Reedus), and the rest of community that the group has built deal with this new type of threat.

Aside from the villains, there are also a lot of characters – both new and old – that have captured the imagination of longtime fans. One of them is Carol (Melissa McBride). Gone are the broken character fans saw in previous installments replaced by a stone-cold killer capable of violence without a second thought. Indeed, the latest episode portrayed the development of this character where Carol burned a group of Saviors alive as retaliation for the ambush she suffered earlier. “The Walking Dead” Season 9 also introduced Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming).

While fans thought that Judith is the daughter of Rick, it’s been revealed that she’s, in fact, the child of Shane (John Bernthal). Her parentage doesn’t really interest fans, however, but how she’s growing up to be one of the most interesting characters in the show. Her relationship with Negan alone is enough to catch the attention of viewers. The next episode of “The Walking Dead” Season 9 is titled “Stradivarius” and will air on Nov. 18.