The Walking Dead Season 5 Will Be Brutal, Says Andrew Lincoln

That’s saying a lot considering where his character ended up at the end of Season Four, but perhaps that was just setting the stage for what’s to come.

“The show is the same story moving forward,” Lincoln told EW. “But because their leader is incredibly uncompromising, I think he is dragging a lot of those people into a place that is darker, more brutal, and there will be fallout from that. So it feels like it’s a more grown-up show. It fees like we’re heading into the heart of darkness. Brutal is the word for this season. It’s always been pretty intense, but this season I think is very hard hitting. People should be prepared for that, I think.”

As far as Rick himself, he ended the season by committing one of the most brutal killings on the show so far and then putting on a show of bravado after he and his group were driven into a railcar and captured by the inhabitants of the mysterious Terminus compound. It seems, though, that the character will continue in that vein for Season Five, finally overcoming the “woe is me” Rick that so many viewers have complained about over the last couple of seasons.

“Rick is probably at the most complete place he’s been ever since the apocalypse started,” says Lincoln. “He’s a man who doesn’t doubt himself anymore, and he’s accepted his brutality as much as his humanity. So I think he’s in an incredibly powerful and dangerous place.”

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 12.