‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7 Spoilers: Showrunner Warns Departure From Original Comics, Whisperers may be Introduced Earlier in Series

‘The Waking Dead’ showrunner Scott Gimple warned that the series’ storyline may deviate from the original comics. He also teased that the show may introduced the Whisperers earlier than expected.

During an interview with Comicbook.com, Gimple teased that the series may move away from the original comic books by Robert Kirkman. The graphic novels depicted that Alexandria, The Kingdom and the Hilltop Colony will band together in a rebellion against Negan known as the "All-Out War." However, it may be Rick and the rest of the good guys may not be planning a massive fight against season 7’s main antagonist just yet.

Gimple said, "This could be a huge departure from the book. This could be it. There might not be a rebellion. I wouldn't want to say that there absolutely will be one, but I would also say it's not a crazy thing to posit that. As far as anything that could possibly move him towards that, if that even were to happen, this is definitely a wait and see."

It remains unknown if the series will follow the original comics’ storyline that depicted Rick rallying the other communities in the fight against Negan and his Saviors. Although Gimple didn’t reveal other details for incoming episodes, he said that they will continue to use the comic books as source material but may move plot lines around. According to Cinema Blend, Gimple said, "The comic is absolutely the basis for the story moving forward and I've always followed the belief of following the story from the book.”

He continued, "That said, accentuating it in places and extrapolating things that are maybe even just mentioned in the book, playing them out even more fully, and then taking different elements from the book and sort of assigning them to different places really just to bring about some of the feelings and reactions I had when I initially read the book."

The series is currently in the "March to War" comic book arc, which is focused on the Negan and his tyranny over the other communities.

Meanwhile, Gimple also teased that the mysterious group of survivors known as the Whisperers may be introduced in the series earlier than expected. He said, "If we've gotten this far without saying anything about them, I'd like the audience to discover this group when it's on screen… I will say ... I mean, it's not the Whisperers. I will also say, though, that it's not impossible that the Whisperers could come along or aspects of them could come along earlier than the timeline of the book, but certainly not this early."

The Whisperers are an antagonistic group whose members disguise themselves with the dead skin of zombies in order to blend in and roam without notice. In the original comics, the Whisperers kill off several characters including Rosita, Ezekiel, and Father Gabriel.

‘The Waking Dead’ season 7’s episode 6, entitled “Swear”, is scheduled to air on AMC on November 27, 2016. It is followed by episode 7, entitled “Sing Me A Song”, scheduled for December 4.