The Walking Dead: Who is the mystery character behind the iron mask?

Although there’s still one episode left in the tenth season of The Walking Dead, we won’t be seeing it for a while, since post-production was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. As if to make the wait even more difficult, a teaser for the finale gave us a glimpse at a huge battle between our survivors and the Whisperers, and even a look at Lauren Cohan marking her anticipated return as Maggie.

There’s also an appearance by an unknown person wearing an iron mask, wielding two awesome weapons. Normally for characters like this, we can look at the comics to see who it is — or at least develop a good guess — but for this one, we just don’t know. Who’s to say it’s not a new character? It could be Maggie rocking a whole new style for all we know.

It looks as if our first encounter with ‘Iron Mask’ will be when Aaron and Alden run into him/her when finding off some Whisperers. We only get a brief glance, but this person already looks like they could be an epic, game-changing character.

There’s been a whole lot of speculation circulating as to who this person could be. So let’s take a look.

All signs point to The Walking Dead soon adapting the Commonwealth storyline from Robert Kirkman’s comics, presumably in season 11 based on the way things are unfolding. The Commonwealth is the most advanced post-apocalyptic civilization our survivors will encounter so far, and it makes sense that a central character from that community could be introduced to us in the finale. One major player in the Commonwealth storyline is Mercer. While fans have theorized that he could be the one behind the mask, he doesn’t quite fit the bill when it comes to appearance. Mercer never wears a costume like that in the comics. He is the military leader of the Commonwealth and would be expected to stay within reach the community rather than go as far as Alexandria.

Another option is the return of Morgan, or even his son Duane. We already know that Morgan is still alive and around, and he was recently in the teaser for Fear the Walking Dead season 6. Those weapons look very much like Morgan-style weapons to me.

And then there’s Duane, but he died, right? Well, Duane’s death happened off-screen, and the only knowledge we have to go by is Morgan’s word that he died attempting to kill his mother Jenny, as she had turned into a Walker.

Speculation aside, whoever this ends up being, they’re going to be a badass. The way they wield those weapons has me extremely excited to see who lies behind the mask. Bring it on!

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels