'The Walking Dead' Season 9 Starts Today

The cast and crew of The Walking Dead have assembled in Senoia, Georgia to begin production on the show's ninth season.

On Monday, the AMC zombie show officially began its first day of work on new episodes. Given construction spotted around the Alexandria set and permit requests for an iconic comic book location to be built, it seems like a safe bet the show will be drastically different as it kicks off with a massive time jump in the fall.

When The Walking Dead returns for its ninth season, the new feeling won't come only in the look of the time-umped-characters. It starts at the top with Angela Kang stepping in as showrunner in Scott Gimple's place. With Kang having written some of the best episodes through Season Seven and Season Eight, her vision of the show's future has Rick actor Andrew Lincoln excited.

"I'm very excited about Angela [Kang]'s tenure," Lincoln told Comicbook.com. "She pitched the first eight a couple of weeks ago. I think we're getting the first episode today. There's a renewed vigor, vitality, energy, and just vision that's happening that is reminiscent, and certainly for me, of the pilot episode. There's a lot of things in there that I kind of dig that she's looking into. The things that I loved about the pilot episode, there's a few ideas in there that she's expanding and running with, which is very exciting."

While Lincoln has been the subject of debate lately, as speculation had questioned whether or not he would stay with the show, the actor seems more than happy to stick with it if high-quality episodes like the Season Eight finale can carry Season Nine and beyond.

"You keep writing episodes like that season finale, Episode 8x14 with Morgan, and a few other crackers," Lincoln said. "The scenes in Episode 8 and 9 last season, I'd be thrilled to hang around. I love the story and I love the characters that make up the story."

Still, Lincoln wants the show to have a proper sense of awareness, as approaches pouring nearly a decade of his life into it. "There's part of me that really wants to complete something," Lincoln said. "How long that takes? I don't know but certainly I really think the fans and my character deserves an end point as some time in the future."

If the Season Eight finale were to have been that end point, Lincoln might have walked away content. After all, it did feel like a series finale to many, with almost all of the narrative threads and character stories being wrapped up nicely.

"I think that when we got the news that Carl was dying on the show, it certainly for me, it felt like very much a bookend of a much bigger journey that began in the hospital," Lincoln said. "Searching for his wife and his son were the two engines that kept this man alive at the beginning of the show eight years. To lose the second engine that fueled him, at this point, certainly did feel, to me personally, not just the end of a chapter but a book, really."

The Walking Dead will return for its ninth season in the fall. Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.