Oh baby! That's right yours truly posted that spoiler online about Michonne popping up at the end of season two, and well well I was right. I'm so excited to see the sword wielding badass simply known as Michonne joining the television series. She sure does make an amazing entrance as she saves Andrea from a walker by decapitation. No actress at the time of filming had been cast in the role, so they used a stand in, but it didn't matter it was terrific, very exciting.
By the way how great was that finale? You had people dying, you had Rick act like a dick at the end tossing democracy away for a dictatorship. But like I said above the appearance of Michonne was the icing on my cake. I just knew when I saw Andrea alone in the woods running on fumes that she would be miraculously saved by Michonne.
TVLINE | The introduction of Michonne was an incredible moment, but I’m curious: Why did you decide not to show her face? Was that just an issue of the role not having been cast yet?
We thought that it would be a little bit more mysterious. And, also, in the interest of keeping these things secret, the casting would’ve been announced right away. And because it is such a short scene, we didn’t cast an actress; we used a stand-in. And as far as her relationship with Andrea goes, she cut the head off of a zombie. She could easily stab Andrea next in the first minutes of Season 3, so who knows what that relationship will be like?
TVLINE | Have you cast the role?
There will be announcements forthcoming…
TVLINE | I’ll take that as a yes.
[Laughs]
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TVLINE | How will the TV version of Michonne be similar/different from her comic book counterpart?
She will be very similar to her comic-book counterpart. Most of the characters as they’ve been translated into TV are pretty much exactly the same character. Andrea is Andrea, Rick is Rick and Michonne is going to be Michonne. Now, the stories that we’re going to tell with her are going to be somewhat different at times. The show has always followed the comic book to a large extent, it just has different divergences from time-to-time and we’re definitely going to continue that in the third season. But the fans have expectations for Michonne, and I can say with full knowledge that their expectations are going to be met. They need not worry.
TVLINE | Did you always know the season would end with her introduction? Did you ever consider, perhaps, teasing the Governor’s arrival instead?
There was a lot of stuff thrown around. It wasn’t really planned early on to have Michonne show up at the end of the season. I have to give credit to [executive producer] Glen Mazzara. He came into the writers room one day and was like, “We’ve got to add this scene. It’ll have so much punch. We have to build to this. It’ll be great. Let’s go ahead and introduce her now.” The original plan was to hold her for Season 3 and introduce her then.
TVLINE | The episode ended with the confirmation that Season 3 would be set in the prison. Not a big surprise but a cool reveal nonetheless.
It’s actually hard for me to do interviews about Season 2 because I’m like, “Oh my God, Season 3 blows this stuff out of the water. You just wait.” We’ve been working on Season 3 for a few months now. We’re wrapping up the first half and we’ve got everything nailed down. I can’t wait for people to see it.
TVLINE | Will Season 3′s 16 episodes be broke up into two parts?
I don’t know if this is 100 percent confirmed, but the idea is we will do eight-and-eight. Getting eight-and-eight will almost be like doing two seasons a year, which is cool.
The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC. The show stars: Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Sarah Wayne Callies, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, Norman Reedus, and Melissa Suzanne McBride.