THE WALKING DEAD's Cast And Crew Reveal New Season Four Details
The cast and crew of AMC's The Walking Dead discuss everything from the return of the Governor to the new threats that the inhabitants of the prison will come up against, even revealing that one episode will be a direct adaptation of an issue of the comic book series.
While season three of The Walking Dead was arguably a huge improvement on the second, there were many reasons why it didn't quite click with fans of the Robert Kirkman penned comic book series. However, executive producer Greg Nicotero told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview that at least one episode will be "almost verbatim" with an issue of the series that AMC's adaptation is based on. "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." Whether that will include the iconic moment when [SPOILERS] Rick has his hand cut off by the Governor [END SPOILERS] is unknown. However, it's something executive producer Dave Alpert is still open to, as is star Andrew Lincoln. "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." Added Lincoln: "I keep saying we should do it, so maybe that's going to happen!"
Talking of the Governor, he will indeed return in season four, although where we pick up with him is a complete mystery now that the show has taken the character in a very different direction to the comic book version. David Morrissey - who plays the Governor - had this to say about the psyche of the villain after the events of season three. "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." As for whether he will now resemble his comic book counterpart, the actor told fans to "wait and see", adding: "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. That's the choice he has to make." While he will presumably still be taking the spotlight as the big bad of this season, Gimple added that the inhabitants of the prison will also have another threat to worry about. "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." Any thoughts?
"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," Nicotero said of the survivor's ability to swiftly and quite easily dispatch the undead. With a human threat being made the focus of season three, many felt that the walkers blended into the background and were too easy to deal with. Expect that to change! "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." Finally, he added that we should expect to once again see the season split in two and for this to mean that it will tell two stories across each group of episodes. "It's really the one episode of the season where there's a little bit of lightheartedness before the shit hits the fan," he said of the season premiere. "It doesn't last very long." More details on the upcoming fourth season can be found by clicking on the link below!