New Walking Dead Theory Says A Surprise Comic Book Character Is The Masked Man

A mysterious new individual is coming to The Walking Dead. As revealed in a sneak peek at the delayed season 10 finale released in April, a highly-skilled fighter saves Aaron and Alden from a bunch of Whisperers while wearing an iron mask and a hoodie to obscure their identity. Fans have been trying to work out who this could be ever since. Most folks assume it’s a man, but some think it could turn out to be a woman.

If so, this interesting new theory suggests that it might be a character from the comics who’s never appeared on TV. As Twitter user Derek de Castro shared, what if the masked person is actually Claudia, as introduced in The Walking Dead: The Alien? This was a special one-off one-shot spinoff issue of the series written by Brian K. Vaughn and pencilled by Marcos Martin. It followed what happened to Rick Grimes’ brother Jeffrey after he travelled to Barcelona, Spain mere days before the zombie outbreak occurred.

There he met Claudia, a museum curator who wore medieval-style plate armor and weaponry to defend herself from the walkers. Jeffrey’s fate was sealed in the comic when he was bitten by a walker, but Claudia survived and made it on a boat to Ibiza, where she was going to hitch a plane ride to the U.S. As he died, Jeffrey asked her to find his brother “Ritchie.” Claudia never appeared in the comics after this single issue, but maybe the story is being continued on screen.

Other contenders for the masked individual include Duane Jones, Morgan’s son who has previously been established to have died off-screen. Another one, meanwhile, is Heath, who went missing in season 7 and was never seen again. The Claudia theory is interesting, though, as it suggests a tie-in with the upcoming Rick Grimes movie trilogy.

Maybe The Walking Dead season 10 finale will shed some light on the mystery… whenever it gets here.