The Walking Dead showrunner talks season 8

Scott Gimple reveals where The Walking Dead is headed when it returns later this year, teasing a more intense and eventful season.

The showrunner talked to various people in the press about what is coming up next for the characters, after the bloody and momentous season 7 finale.

According to EW, Gimple said this during Talking Dead:

“I say it’s going to be bigger, it’s going to be more intense. I say these things and I’ve meant them every year and I think we’ve actually accomplished that…This year, same thing. More intense. The first 4 episodes will melt people’s minds and break their televisions.”

He also told TVLine that Season 8 is:

“going to be different. They aren’t going to meet in Alexandria every weekend and do that. There are twists and turns to it, definitely some small-scale things and some large-scale things and a whole different momentum to the story. Now that [the various factions] are in public conflict and everything is on the table as far as everybody knows who everybody is to each other and what’s going on, the narrative changes a lot.

It’s going to become a bit more kinetic and fast-moving, because that’s where the story is going. The content is definitely going to be determining the form.”

He told Variety:

“It’s essentially for the whole world as far as their experience…It isn’t just their little corner. It’s the Kingdom and the Hilltop too. The Governor just wanted them dead. Negan would be happy if everyone was alive and well and working for him. There’s a very basic political idea at play here. They want to live in a fair world instead of having it just be Negan’s. To that end, that idea feels to me like the beginning of civilization is at stake, this new civilization they want to build rather than live this strange half-life serving a despot.”

He also talked to The Hollywood Reporter about the group’s reaction to Sasha’s death:

“Rick and the group are coming off a win and even with the loss of Sasha, she was such a huge part of that win — she wasn’t a victim, she was a team captain in some ways — and that’s a good way for them to start the season and a good place for them to be. This isn’t a time of them wringing their hands; it’s a time to descend into righteous battle, which is a serious thing. They’re not glib about it but there is something extremely freeing to these people to be involved in such a noble cause.”

And he talked more about what to expect in the next season, titled “All Out War”:

“There’s a lot of twists and turns in All Out War, parts one and two, and aspects of March to War that we didn’t completely use…On top of that, there’s the expansions within the story of characters that aren’t in the book and situations that totally come from the book but yet are very different in some circumstances. By virtue of what The Walking Dead is, there is more stuff than was even in the book and stuff from earlier books that we might be dipping into, too.”

Read our reviews of the The Walking Dead HERE.