Walking Dead: Norman Reedus, Greg Nicotero, Danai Gurira on Season Four and Zombie Babies

This past weekend at San Diego Comic Con International, ComicBook.com had an opportunity to sit down at a small press roundtable with a number of the stars of AMC’s hit series The Walking Dead.Based on the Image Comics/Skybound comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard, The Walking Dead  will launch its fourth season this October on AMC; last year it became the first cable series ever to post, over the course of its season, the best ratings of any show on TV including broadcast hits like The Big Bang Theory and NCIS.The series is perhaps best known for its maxim that “no one is safe,” and for its Emmy Award-winning effects, overseen by Greg Nicotero.Nicotero, along with the show’s resident bad-asses Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) and Danai Gurira (Michonne), joined us at the roundtable for a discussion on the upcoming season. You can check it out below, with reporters’ questions in bold and italic and the answers labeled by speaker.Any new sort of zombie types going to be in the new season? What should we expect to see?Greg Nicotero: There’s some new–Scott Gimple and I had a really fascinating conversation when we wrapped season three, just about…our group has been on the road for a long time and they’ve become very proficient–as our lovely lady her shows [indicating Gurira]–proficient at killing walkers.So we wanted to make sure that the threat was still there; that it wasn’t, “Oh, well they can just kill sixty walkers. They can go into the prison yard and kill them and then everything is fine.” So the writers have done a really unique job of crafting these moments where our group can potentially find themselves in the middle of a little nest of walkers without being prepared. It doesn’t matter how great and how efficient they are as killers; if they’re caught off-guard, they’re caught off-guard. And if they’re caught off-guard with more walkers…This season, we’ve surpassed probably season one and season two completely in terms of numbers of walkers. I mean, you can see in the trailer there’s shots where we have a hundred to two hundred walkers coming up to the fence in the prison and that was for the most part done all practically. We had a lot of walkers in those scenes. So we’re always trying to push it.Have we seen any zombie babies yet?

Danai Gurira: Nicotero: Norman Reedus: Gurira: As infants, we’re so dependent on our parents, but a zombie baby can literally walk out into the… Nicotero: Gurira: Nicotero: Nicotero: Was there ever consideration that Lori’s baby would be a zombie before it was killed? Nicotero: Humanoids From the Deep For the actors, is it ever a little creepy to be surrounded by tons of zombies when you’re off-camera? Is there a creep factor that comes from being surrounded by those people? Gurira: Reedus: Nicotero:

Norman, your character has always shown his loyalty to Rick but will the loss of Merle cause some consternation between you two? Reedus: There’s been a lot made of the fact that with Daryl and Tyreese, Rick is no longer the sole alpha male in the pack and so fewer people will just assume that he’s the leader.  But Danai, does that kind of uneasy leadership situation impact how you interact with people? I mean, you might be a girl, but you can kick just about anybody’s ass. Reedus: Stepping out of that, she can be lonely even just for companionship. Romantic companionship, I mean. Gurira: Nicotero: Gurira: Nicotero: Michonne and Daryl both had really big losses right at the end of the season. Will they find a bond with each other? Nicotero: Reedus: Nicotero: Nicotero: Reedus: Nicotero: Reedus: Nicotero: The baby with the crossbow could fight the baby zombies! Nicotero: Gurira: Reedus: Nicotero: Reedus: Nicotero: Have you discussed following a walker character for a longer term? Nicotero: scenario like Bub Do you feel like the walkers are beyond sympathy or do you still try to create them with some kind of humanity?