What a mid-season finale, eh? Series creator Robert Kirkman who is also an executive producer and writer
on AMC's The Walking Dead spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the shocking events and the loss of Hershel (Scott Wilson). Said Kirkman, "[Hershel] was the moral compass of the group and it’s always good to lose the moral compass. It will all become clear when we finally show you the back half of season 4. It wasn’t enough for these characters to lose the prison. They also had to feel some kind of loss over something important and Hershel was that thing that was important to each and every character, so it made the most sense to take him off the table and see how it affects the characters, which we’ll see when we come back in a bit. So there’s a lot of cool stuff ahead because of that."
Kirkman also answers the question of why The Governor (David Morrisey) puts the sword through Hershel and not Michonne (Danai Gurira) given that he should have more hate for her than the placid farmer. "Well, there’s two things: I don’t think he knew that things were going to spiral out of control the way they did right after he killed Hershel so it’s entirely possible that he had a much more horrible plan for Michonne," said Kirkman. He continued, "But two, because of that exchange between Hershel and the Governor in the trailer, and because of Rick’s comments mirroring a lot of what Hershel said, I think the Governor got the sense that this was the guy that was advising Rick and kind of represented the whole “we can all live together in harmony” attitude, and that’s the guy you want to take off the table just to show this is not what’s happening. I’m going to take this prison."
And with The Prison's collapse, what's coming next on the show? "It’s pretty emotional. I definitely do have some pieces from that place that I pocketed as we were tearing it down, so it’s a big deal," said Kirkman on saying goodbye to the shooting location. He added, "But The Walking Dead moves on. That’s what we do. We didn’t stay at the farm. We’re not staying at the prison. We’re always going to be going to new and cool and interesting dangerous places." And moving forward, is there a meetup location for everyone to gather like there was in Season 2 after the group had to vacate the farm? "I would not expect the group to be getting reunited as quickly as they did at the end of season 2. Or possibly ever. So there’s definitely a lot of unknowns going into the back half of this season. We’ll just have to see if they come together It’s entirely possible that there will be some parts of that group that just don’t quite make it back."
The Walking Dead will return in February.
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"The Walking Dead, the most watched drama in basic cable history, will return for a sixteen episode fourth season on October 13, 2013.
Based on the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard and published by Image Comics, The Walking Dead stars Andrew Lincoln, Steven Yeun, Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs, Lauren Cohan, Scott Wilson, Melissa McBride, David Morrissey, Chad Coleman, Sonequa Martin-Green and Danai Gurira . The series is executive produced by Kirkman, Scott M. Gimple, Greg Nicotero, and Gale Anne Hurd." |
Running Time: 60 minutes (45 min actual air time)
Release Date: October 2013 (Season 4-premiere)
TV Rating: TV-MA for sex & nudity, violence & gore, profanity, alchohol/drugs/smoking and frightening/intense scenes
Starring: Andrew Lincoln, David Morrissey,Chad Coleman, Sonequa Martin-Green, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, Emily Kinney, Norman Reedus
Creators: Frank Darabont (show) Robert Kirkman (comic)
Written by: Frank Darabont, Charles H. Eglee, Jack LoGiudice, Robert Kirkman, Glen Mazzara, Adam Fierro, Charlie Adlard, Tony Moore, Evan T. Reilly