A recent cliffhanger ending to an episode of The Walking Dead may be related to actress Lauren Ridloff’s upcoming role in Marvel’s Eternals. The AMC show is currently airing its tenth season, while the upcoming MCU movie is set to release November 2020.
Marvel’s Eternals will be an interesting release for the studio because like Guardians of the Galaxy before it, the movie features characters who are largely unknown to the general movie-going public. The movie follows a group of cosmic-powered immortal beings who’ve been living in secret on Earth for centuries. To compensate for Eternal’s obscurity, Marvel has enlisted an A-list cast of actors that includes Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harrington, Richard Madden, and Kumail Nanjiani. Eternals will also star Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, an Eternal who possesses super-speed, which may explain her Walking Dead character, Connie’s involvement in a recent episode’s cliffhanger ending.
The end to The Walking Dead’s season 10 midseason premiere sees characters trapped in an underground cave following a dynamite-triggered collapsed, their fates left unknown. Among those trapped is Ridloff’s character, Connie, and when asked by Business Insider if Connie’s predicament was in response to Ridloff’s involvement with Eternals, Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang responded:
Connie’s fate in The Walking Dead season 10 is still unknown, and Kang obviously didn’t expand on it for fear of spoiling what’s to come. But it does seem that having Connie trapped in the cave may not have been the original plan, and rather, her needing time away from set to film Eternals necessitated that she be one of the characters trapped. This also implies it will be at least a few episodes before her fate is actually revealed. In the meantime, though, Walking Dead will have plenty of drama for Daryl to sift through. Recent seasons have hinted at a possible romance between Daryl and Connie, and judging by his reaction to her being trapped, he isn’t going to handle this well. Add to that it was a situation created by Carol’s selfish obsession with getting revenge for Henry, and this could put their friendship in a real bad place.
“That is a very apt observation [laughter]. Yeah, there is some aspect of that that is true. But I think for the story, it’s actually worked out really beautifully. 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.”
Ridloff’s role in Marvel’s Eternals as Makkari is one of the more interesting elements of the movie. Not only does her casting gender-swap the role, it also makes the character deaf - an intriguing deviation from the source material, and especially so for a character Eternals describes as incredibly powerful and immortal. Ridloff’s Makkari will also be Marvel’s first deaf superhero character, bringing an even greater representation to a cast that’s already one of the MCU’s most diverse. For fans currently missing Connie on The Walking Dead, though, there’s at least a possible future for Ridloff within the MCU.
Next: The Walking Dead Characters Most Likely To Die Before Season 10 Ends
Source: Business Insider
