Although “The Walking Dead” has suffered through abrupt showrunner changes twice, it became one of the most popular scripted dramas on TV during its third season and it regularly beat competition from the broadcast networks.
“The Walking Dead” will be back on AMC in about a month and a half as the series enters new territory. Last season found the prison survivors led by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) successfully withstanding a full assault by the Governor (David Morrissey) and his men before taking in several residents of Woodbury.
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, several members of “The Walking Dead” creative team and the cast dropped a few hints about the new season. Perhaps most intriguing of all was executive producer Greg Nicotero revealed that an episode of the series will be taken “almost verbatim” from the comic book series by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard.
“It’s really fascinating to make those slight departures, introduce new characters and then get to a situation where you take one episode and you really stick to the source material,” explained Nicotero. “You’ll be surprised about the way the characters lay out.”
Although the Govenor’s whereabouts are unknown at the beginning of season 4, Kirkman added that “More than any other character, Michonne is driven to find the Governor and find out what’s going on with him; where he is, what he may be plotting and bringing him to justice.” As for the Governor himself, new showrunner Scott Gimple said that he has gone through “some very heavy stuff. It will weigh upon him and it will change him.”
Morrissey noted that “[The Governor] doesn’t carry what happened at the end of season three very lightly. He was a man that recognizes a switch went off in his head and even though he’s done terrible things, that ramped him up to somewhere else and he was out of control. That’s a very worrying thing for him and that switch takes him into this dark place.”
Lincoln also shared his thoughts about Rick: “He’s a man that is wrestling with a motor that didn’t work last season. He’s trying to suppress the brutality for the sake of both of his children and trying to be a parent in an apocalypse and trying to return to the man he once was… He focuses his energies on something that’s completely different but is still helping the people of the community.”
Nicotero noted that not all of the former Woodbury residents would fit in with the prison survivors: “Some people buy [living within the boundaries set by Rick’s group] and some people don’t subscribe to it and some don’t really conform to it.”
As for the zombies, Nicotero warned that more dangerous walkers are ahead. “Our group became very proficient at killing walkers,” related Nicotero. “So one of the things that Scott and I talked about after season three was we wanted that threat to be ever constant and ever present… We’ve devised ways to put our characters in instantaneous jeopardy without them being prepared for it. Danger could come from anywhere, and it was really important that we re-establish the rules of our world.”
“The Walking Dead” Season 4 will premiere on Sunday, Oct. 13 on AMC.
