That’s what I think. Someone new. If it was Maggie’s new love interest, that might just ease the blow somewhat, of seeing Negan again walking as a free man amongst Team Family.

 

The mask is interesting - especially after skin masks & Beta's secret identity. The wearer has at least 3 possible reasons for it:
1) Like Beta, he may have been in/famous before The Event.
2) Hideous disfigurement (though it would have to be specifically so bad that they could easily be mistaken for a walker - surely nobody left has that delicate a constitution after all the mutilated rotten corpses they must have seen shambling about)
3) We know them. But it must be someone we haven't seen for years - if it was Morgan's boy, who'd recognise him now?
or, I guess, 4) They think masks are cool, and they're so good with the double axes that nobody calls them out for being a pretentious duffle-coated dweeb.
Ooh, 5) Bruce Wayne. The whole Batman schtick had to go after Alfred tried to bite him and shambling Gothamites trashed Wayne Manor, but he couldn't get used to fighting without a mask on.

 

The character is a bit ridiculous, and the fact that he is associated to Maggie makes me dislike him/her already.

 

Who was that masked man?

 

I have a feeling that the masked character really wasn't suppose to be such a huge deal to the audience, and we only made it a bigger deal by wondering who it was for 6 months. Had the episode aired on time, we probably wouldn't really pay him much mind. I wouldn't be surprised if the original intent was to make him not much more than a background character, but perhaps now that it has generated so much online speculation, they will decide to develop him more. He may be a major part of one or two of the 6 bonus episodes.

 

I just think the opposite. The introduction of such a character is quite spectacular, whether or not this episode was aired in the original date or not. The mask, IIRC, is first of a kind in this show. And then, the excellent fighting skill is second to none (better than Morgan and Jesus). So, I expect a story (little or big) of this character.

BTW, in addition to the above listed possible reason for the using of the mask, there are 2 possibilities that I can think of:-

a. it could act as a whisperer skin? Note that he not only has a mask, he has gloves too. So, it seems that none of his flesh is exposed. If he moves fast, he will, of course, be recognized by walkers. But if he walks slowly or stands still, he might just fool the walkers.

b. his community has a rule of not exposing identity easily when outside. (The Stormtroopers have mask/helmet too, assuming they are from the same community).

BTW, if we have the Stormtroopers, maybe this masked man is a Sith Lord (the hooded cloak, fighting skill...) lol

 

could it be Lil Hershel grown up? How long has passed in time since Hershel was born?

 

Considering how quickly Carl grew up you may be right.

 

Judith was born a couple of years before little Hershel.


The truth is out there

 

With the pandemic it feels like years since the last episode, but it's too soon for that. As someone else pointed out, he's younger than Judith.

If that is Little Hershel I sure wouldn't want to mess with him when he becomes Big Hershel.

 

My guess is it's their replacement for Jesus. They realized how badly they screwed up and wasted his character and our trying to replace him with a ridiculous post apocalypse ninja.