Connie’s back but trapped in a house of horrors when Lauren Ridloff returns to The Walking Dead. After escaping the collapsed cave where Alpha (Samantha Morton) and the Whisperers hid their walker horde in Season 10, it was Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) one-time friend Virgil (Kevin Carroll) who found Connie stumbling through the woods outside of Oceanside. When they hole up in a house crawling with mysterious creatures in “On the Inside,” streaming now on AMC+ ahead of a September 26 airing on AMC, Connie and Virgil must survive together in their own “horror movie” episode of The Walking Dead.
“We’re really excited to have Lauren Ridloff back as Connie. She went off and was in a different cinematic universe for a while,” said showrunner Angela Kang of the Marvel’s Eternals star on The Walking Dead Season 11 Preview Special in August. “She’s been a resilient survivor out in the woods and we saw that she crossed with Virgil, and when we come upon them, they’re gonna be in some danger with some people who are really far gone.”
“I won’t say much more than that,” Kang teased, “but they get to kind of star in their own little horror movie within the show. So she’s been through a lot.”
Kang previously confirmed Connie’s disappearance was to accommodate Ridloff’s filming schedule on director Chloé Zhao’s Eternals. In the new movie releasing November 5 and starring an ensemble that includes Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, Ridloff plays the super-fast Makkari, the first deaf superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I think for the story, it’s actually worked out really beautifully,” Kang previously told Insider about writing Ridloff’s absence into the storyline, sparking conflict between best friends Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus), and spurring Kelly (Angel Theory) to set off in search of her missing sister. “So I think there’s some really interesting stuff that came out of it for both Carol and Daryl, and she’s a character that I think is leading with emotion for both of them. So sometimes those things that you have to do to help out a beloved actor also work out in your favor.”
“On the Inside” is streaming now on AMC+ and premieres Sunday, September 26, at 9/8c on AMC.
Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Walking Dead Season 11 airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.