'The Walking Dead' Showrunner Teases New Season 9 Charaters, Relationships

The Walking Dead has some intriguing new changes coming in its ninth season according to new showrunner Angela Kang.

Kang finally shared new details regarding the upcoming batch of episodes, set to unveil their first look at San Diego Comic Con in just over a week, and it will be loaded with entrances, exits, and a brand new timeline. "We want to show what happens to people over time, the ways in which they change and grow," Kang told TheWrap. "We want to look at these, like, very long-standing relationships between the characters who are now all so, so different from when we first met them."

The Season Nine key art only featured some of the shows longest running characters: Rick, Daryl, Maggie, Carol, and Michonne. Each character has changed significantly, but will also have interesting relationships with some of the show's newer faces -- such as a dynamic between Carol and Ezekiel which was teased but never cemented in previous seasons.

"There will be some intriguing new people that our people run across," Kang added. ""We're going to be looking a lot at what it means to have a civilization."

However, rebuilding civilization on such a delicate foundation will prove treacherous for the Alexandrian survivors. The war with Negan, which is now over, came with a price and the world around them will continue to fall apart despite the battle being won.

Season Nine will look at "just how much the world around them is starting to degrade, like you know, the man-made things of the world," Kang says. "The buildings, the infrastructure, it's all changing and nature is kind of taking back over in some ways, and that's going to create a lot of interesting challenges for our people to overcome in the course of the season."

As Season Nine aims to "jump ahead in time", the new batch of episodes is the beginning of "a new chapter of the show," with Kang at the helm.

The Walking Dead will return for its ninth season in the fall. Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC, returning for the second half of its fourth season on August 12th. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.