The Walking Dead Season 4 Comic-Con Panel Spoilers & Live Recap

The Walking Dead Season 4 panel is taking place right now at San Diego Comic-Con International. Comicbook.com is at the panel, and we'll be bringing you live updates on spoilers and details about Season 4 of The Walking Dead. Talking Dead's Chris Hardwick is the moderator of the panel, which includes a sneak preview of Season 4 of The Walking Dead, as well as a question and answer session with the panelists. Panel participants include series stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, David Morrissey, Scott Wilson, and Chad Coleman, as well as executive producer and showrunner Scott Gimple, executive producer Robert Kirkman, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer Dave Alpert, and special effects makeup supervisor and executive producer Greg Nicotero. The panel opened with David Alpert talking about what he called the "evolution" of the story, noting that they hope to shake up the status quo whenever it seems that the characters are getting comfortable in their positions. On Morrissey's The Governor, who returns as a series regular this year, they say that he's a character for whom "negative reinforcement" will play a big role going forward. Robert Kirkman teased the when, why and how of his return as a mystery. They then ran a trailer, which you can see here. When the cast joined the panelists onstage, Lincoln was the first to make a major point, saying that Carl's big move in the season finale would be a wake-up call for him in terms of his parenting. This season will see a slightly different version of Rick as he's given up some of his leadership responsibilities to others in the group to focus on the kids. According to Yeun, Glenn's character arc has been interesting, and we'll continue to see fallout from last year; he was so angry about what happened to Maggie that his desire to deal with it actually started to hurt his relationship with her. Cohan, meanwhile, is building on the direction her character took last year when she decided to forgive Glenn. Scott Wilson says he thinks Hershel just wants to hold onto his other leg. Chad Coleman says Tyreese is still trying to find out how he fits in with the new group. Morrissey says that he killed his group because he felt they'd betrayed him, but that he hadn't killed all of them and that he still has two with him. Reedus, meanwhile, said that while his character has more room to grow without Merle, he knew it was going to "suck" when he read the script to the episode where Michael Rooker's character died. He also points out that none of the characters are the same as they were in the first season. At the same time as he's building a family, though, the larger community is growing, too, and that is a responsibility for himself and Rick. Lincoln told the audience that his character is being pulled in a lot of directions by a lot of different characters, and when Gurira said to expect the unexpected, Hardwick asked whether a Rick/Michonne pairing might be plausible. The answers that came were a resoundingly non-committal maybe. Rick, particularly, has been favorably impacted by the sense of community, having been pulled out of his delusion and depression by a renewed sense of purpose. The characters who have died in the series remain in photos hung up in the dressing rooms, which the cast call the "Grateful Dead." For Danai Gurira, she's particularly fond of Laurie Holden (Andrea), who served as an "indoctrinator" onto the show for her. Yeun speaks fondly of Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale). He also had a good relationship with Jon Bernthal (Shane), of whom Yeun does a solid impression. Said Gimple, the show has an amazing ensemble of characters and they affect each other. Their priorities in this world make them change each other.