WALKING DEAD Season 4 - Tons of New Details!
The Walking Dead is set to return in October, and if you're not already excited for its return, listen to some of the cast and crew talk about in some detail what is in store for the fans. I think you're going to be very happy with what is coming next season.
While talking to THR, new showrunner Scott Gimple explained:
"I'm excited to tell stories in the book that I love. We're catching up to some of those. We're taking the greatest hits approach of all the things I loved that we've done and grabbing from all the different seasons and working it up. There are a lot of characters that are dead on the show that aren't dead in the books. There are a lot of characters on the show that aren't in the book. It's a remixing of a lot of elements from the book in different context; different characters a lot of the time but taking the emotional thrust of those elements and putting them all in a different rhythm. People will see stuff from the comics and they'll know exactly where it came from but it'll be in a different context -- it has to be. You'll also see stories that are totally outside of the comic that have never been seen before. But the basis for those stories are totally from the spirit of the stories told in the comics."
From here on out you might consider some of this information to be SPOILERS, so if you don't want to know then don't read ahead! These are 7 of 14 reveals found on THR. Click the link to read the rest.
Big comics episode planned:While the series is taking the above remix approach, EP Greg Nicotero previewed that an episode coming up later in the year is "almost verbatim" with one issue of the comic. "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. You'll be surprised about the way the characters lay out."
Rick will focus on fatherhood first:
Producers say the season three finale, where Carl (Chandler Riggs) questioned his father's decision to let the Woodbury survivors into the prison, serves as the jumping-off point for the season. "He's a man that is wrestling with a motor that didn't work last season," Lincoln says. "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." As part of that push, Rick has realized that the pressure of being the group's leader has taken him away from being a father. "He focuses his energies on something that's completely different but is still helping the people of the community," he added, keeping mum on what his new focus is. Adds EP Dave Alpert: "He's trying to find a way to add value and help and try to find a place for himself inside the community where he can do that without having to be the alpha male making all the decisions.… This is a very different Rick. How long that can last, however, is another question."
Could Rick lose a limb? (Spoiler alert!):
While Rick and the Governor (David Morrissey) are yet to have their epic face-off -- the first of which in the comics [SPOILER ALERT] ends with the former's hand being brutally chopped off -- Alpert says that may still be in the cards. "It was one of those things where, given all the other things going on [in season three], we decided it was too much to put on. That's not to say we're not going to do it later, but there's too much of a burden." Adds Lincoln with a smirk: "I keep saying we should do it, so maybe that's going to happen!"The Governor will be different:
The eye-patched villain will have gone through "some very heavy stuff," Gimple says. "It will weigh upon him and it will change him." Adds Morrissey: "He 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." While some time has passed between seasons, Morrissey said fans will have to "wait and see" if the Governor's look has changed to be more in line with his comic book counterpart. "It's about how he deals and comes to terms with the man he is and what he's capable of and which side he's going to fall on," the actor said. "That's the choice he has to make."
The new threat:
"It's someone we haven't seen before. Someone unusual; you can't stab them in the face, you can't reason with it. It's a force that would be dangerous in this world and in the world of The Walking Dead, it's terrifying," Gimple said.The zombies will be more threatening:
Nicotero says season four will feature walkers that aren't as manageable as they became in season three. "Our group became very proficient at killing walkers, 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," he said of the group's ability to swiftly eliminate a horde of the undead. "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."
Andrea's death will continue to have an impact:
Producers insist they don't kill off characters for shock -- and ratings. Hurd says Andrea's (Laurie Holden) early death -- the character is still alive and kicking after more than 100 issues of the comic-- was an example of the organic evolution of characters on the series and prompted Rick to bring the Woodbury survivors back to the prison, setting the stage for season four. "It's never just, 'Oh, let's shock the fans. Let's just throw something in to titillate people for shock value,' " she says. Nicotero echoed the approach and said Gimple's pitches are always grounded in what's best for the story. "I miss Laurie Holden and I wish she was still around. I feel like there was a lot we could have done with her character. I feel like the end of season three, her character got a little lost and I wanted to see her around more and see her rejoin our group. It was a really sad departure for all of us and Scott is very thoughtful about those moments."
One thing we can count on is that we're in for another hell of a great season!