10 Things We Learned on the Set of ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 [Set Visit Report]

As The Walking Dead zombie crawls to season 9, the question that’s been on many fans’ minds is how the series will keep things fresh and exciting after so many years. Turns out, the answer is completely turning everything we know about this apocalyptic world on its head. With the ascension of writer Angela Kang as the new showrunner and the impending departure of Andrew Lincoln as leader Rick Grimes, change is most definitely in the air.

Here are 10 things we learned while visiting the blistering Atlanta set.

The plot of season 9 begins 18 months after where we left off in season 8.

Comics fans may have already expected that a time jump would occur as it does in the books, but The Walking Dead has had a knack for even throwing comic book purists off by detouring from the source material or the point when a certain plot twist occurs. But true as the books, season 9 begins a year and a half later, which means things have drastically changed for the people of Georgia as supplies, resources, and even weapons have almost depleted which has forced them to get very creative when it comes to the characters’ survival. “It kind of takes the show and the books into this interesting, almost western/agrarian vibe,” Kang said. “That was something I really wanted to capture in the show.”

If you were a fan of the pilot back in 2010, you’re in luck.

There have been countless zombie kills, cannibals, and other threats that have plagued our heroes throughout the series, and while the new season promises to keep the stakes high, Kang and the other writers wanted to go back to one of the things that really helped put the series on the map in the first season—the intimate dialogue between the characters. “I was such a fan of the pilot, and so I wanted to try to recapture some of that feeling of the silences and the beautiful, wide landscapes and the loneliness that can be in the world,” Kang said. “Except now, we’re in a part where we really see the characters have found this group and they’re very tight with each other. So, you get to feel that warmth between them, while there are also conflicts.” Greg Nicotero—who’s worn many hats throughout the run of the series, including directing and spearheading the makeup and visual effects, agreed with Kang: “It’s really about going back to what made The Walking Dead great when you started watching it. I want you to be able to lean in and listen to everything that [the characters] are saying because they say more than 3 or 4 f***ing things. They have real conversations, conversations that you give a s**t about.”

The crust of the season will explore how these characters navigate a world that’s been ravaged by war.

Because of the time jump, what we’ll see particularly at the start of the season is this the characters trying to rebuild, a “reset” as Kang called it. As you’ll see even in the first episode, cars no longer run without maintenance, so the characters are on horseback. “I love apocalypse stories, and I think one of the things that’s really interesting is issues of scarcity. So, when you do run out of gas that’s really easy to work, when bullets are scarcer, when food is scarce. Canned goods aren’t going to last forever, so now you have to farm,” she said.

There are new opening credits this season that you should pay extra attention to.

Don’t worry; the haunting and quite effective score remains, but the graphics of the opening credits have evolved. It was a change that Kang jumped at the opportunity to spearhead, so much so that she even made sure to add some surprises in it for the diehard fans: “We started building it and, toward the end, we started putting hidden objects in there. Hopefully it will be fun for our fans to be digging frame by frame of all the little Easter eggs that are buried.”

Though Lincoln’s departure left a gaping hole in the hearts of the cast and crew, the writers have penned a worthy exit for Rick that will also serve as a jumping off point to elevate other characters on the show.

I’m not going to lie: Lincoln’s departure announcement totally threw me for a loop too. I had many of the same questions other fans did: who will be the new leader? Will the show end after he leaves? The answers to those queries are it’s unclear and no. Details of exactly when and how Rick will be written off remain hush-hush, but there is a plan. With sensitivity to the fact that Lincoln is no longer among the cast in later episodes of the season (airing in 2019), Kang wanted to give him a strong, memorable story to conclude his run. “The big story responsibility that I felt was how do we write a worthy exit for this person whose character has been so fun and compelling to watch and write for and brought us into the story,” Kang said. “We are also personally fond of Andrew Lincoln. He’s such a rare and amazing human being. We love working with him and we wanted to give him something that the fans love as much as he seems to that has a good story.”

As for who will succeed Rick’s leadership, it sounds like the rest of the characters. While the cast agrees that there can be no other Rick, his departure offers an opportunity for certain other characters to be elevate in a way we haven’t seen before. “We have this great ensemble. It’s been an ensemble from the start, even though he’s been a character that has helped us frame some of the moral questions throughout the series. It’s been an exciting opportunity to build up some of those characters and delve into some of those relationships that we’ve had going for a long time as well as introduce new characters or see people that we’ve seen for many years change.” Kang assured. 

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