The Walking Dead: Christian Serratos Previews Rosita's Return

Although The Walking Dead's Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos) was shot in the Season 7 finale, the show will still feature plenty of Rosita going forward... but fans will have to wait a bit to see her.

Serratos welcomed a child with singer David Boyd on May 1, which was the first full day of shooting on the forthcoming season, so producers had to get a bit creative to incorporate her character in Season 8.

Serratos told Entertainment Weekly that she initially planned to arrive on the show's Atlanta set set for the first two weeks of the Season 8 shoot before heading back west to deliver her baby, but the little one had different plans and arrived early.

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"What I can say is that we still do have the magic of the film industry," she explained. "There's the second unit. I don't want to say you won't see her. I don't want to say you will. I just want to say that where there's a will there's a way."

In other words, after she did return to set, it's possible the secondary directing unit may have grabbed a few pickup shots of her in character to supplement some of the earlier episodes. Considering what executive producer Scott M. Gimple had to say about when she'll be seen again, that seems like the likeliest scenario.

"There will be a notable sort of Rosita-lessness early on," Gimple told EW. "She did get shot at the end of the season, so she was recovering from that, but she's back and she got back actually pretty soon, and she's terrific. So, timing-wise, we missed Espinosa a little bit, but she was healing up from her wounds at the hands of the Saviors."

The Walking Dead has managed to work around cast pregnancies in the past by sending Tara on an arduous journey to Oceanside that took her out of the main action when Alanna Masterson had her baby and using clever placement of items and clothing articles on Sasha when Sonequa Martin-Green was expecting.

The new season is poised to present an "all-out war" between the Alexandrian allies and the Saviors, but instead of simply trying to survive in the zombie apocalypse, Rick Grimes & Co. are ready to carve out stable lives for themselves once and for all. So, even though Rosita may have been injured in the skirmish with the Saviors at the end of Season 7, there's no doubt her soldier skills and unshakable determination will be essential to that effort.

The Walking Dead Season 8 premieres Sunday, Oct. 22 at 9/8c.