The Walking Dead season 9 spoilers: Lauren Ridloff to play Connie
While the network has not confirmed that the Connie from the TV show is the same one from the Robert Kirkman series, it’s hard to think that the name is a complete coincidence. According to a report from Entertainment Weekly, deaf actress Lauren Ridloff — fresh off a Tony nomination for Children of a Lesser God, is going to be playing this character across multiple episodes. The site describes the character as “a seasoned survivor deft at using her senses to read people, situations, and trouble. Her character is deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate.”
In the comics, the Connie character is not deaf, but turns up following a time jump — something that does seem to be happening in season 9 based on the information that is out there. The show does often “remix” comic characters and stories, and that could be what happens here. We are certainly curious to learn more about what it is like to be a deaf person in a world where there is so much danger around every corner. Hearing is more important than ever in this world in order to detect threats, but she may have perfected some other skills to compensate for some of what she’s unable to do.
As for whether or not many other characters will learn to communicate with her, we actually think that there will be more of an effort to learn ASL here than there is with people in real life. For starters, every single person post-apocalypse has higher value, and beyond just that, we can see there being a lot of time in Alexandria or elsewhere that a few survivors could commit themselves to learning more.
Related – The Walking Dead showrunner teases season 9 story, more Daryl
The latest batch of The Walking Dead episodes is slated to premiere on AMC this October. Be prepared for more news at San Diego Comic-Con later this year.
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