‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8 Blu-ray Retailer Exclusives Revealed

The Walking Dead complete season 8 shambles to DVD and Blu-ray August 21 with a horde of Blu-ray retailer exclusives offered by Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Walmart, IGN reveals.

In keeping with tradition, Best Buy will offer an exclusive lenticular cover, boasting a shifting 3D-like image, while Target offers up their latest limited-edition steelbook with its own exclusive artwork. Each season, Target has released steelbooks — typically ‘jumbo-sized,’ until season 7 — since The Walking Dead‘s third season.

Walmart will feature its own exclusive cover and come with a digital copy, which in past releases has come included with every copy but is now limited only to the version purchased at Walmart stores.

Amazon.co.uk. will offer an exclusive edition that comes with character cards — each one featuring a separate faction and outpost, including Alexandria and the Saviors — and McFarlane Toys is expected to unveil a limited edition set, as they have in years past, to release later this year.

AMC officially announced the home release last week, set to include a light offering of special features including audio commentaries for episode 8×03, 8×04, and 8×16, with executive producer and then-showrunner Scott Gimple.

Featurettes include ‘Carl Grimes: Leaving a Legacy,’ paying homage to the since killed-off survivor portrayed by Chandler Riggs, a ‘Price of War’ featurette, and an ‘In Memorium’ featurette paying tribute to the deaths racked up by season 8 over the course of ‘All Out War.’

Walmart (Exclusive Cover Art and Digital Copy)

Unlike the standard edition featuring just a war-ready Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Daryl (Norman Reedus) on its cover, the Walmart exclusive edition features the expansive main cast of season 8, including fan-favorites Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Morgan (Lennie James), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Carol (Melissa McBride), and King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Shiva.

The Walmart edition also comes included with a digital copy, entitling buyers to redeem a digital version through services like Vudu or iTunes. Since The Walking Dead season 4, digital copies have come included in all editions — marking the first time a digital copy code has been reserved for a store exclusive. 

Best Buy (Exclusive Lenticular Cover)

The Best Buy version bares exclusive cover art pitting Alexandrian leader Rick Grimes versus de facto Savior leader Negan, who wields deadly barbwire-wrapped baseball bat Lucille.

The lenticular cover — one that appears to change, depending on its vantage point — is the latest of Best Buy-exclusive 3D-imitating covers. The retailer released exclusive lenticulars for all seven seasons thus far, including ones featuring the ‘Bicycle Girl’ walker and the Governor’s zombie head fish tank.

Target (Exclusive Steelbook)

Target will offer an exclusive limited-edition steelbook as it did for seasons 3—7, featuring all-new art depicting Rick versus Negan and a horde of walkers. The retailer first started offering steelbooks with season 3, only ditching the over-sized ‘jumbo’ steels last year with season 7.

Amazon UK (Exclusive Character Cards)

Internationally, Amazon.co.uk offers a version that comes with six exclusive character cards, each one representing a community: Alexandria, featuring Rick Grimes, Hilltop, featuring Maggie Rhee, Oceanside, featuring Tara (Alanna Masterson), the Kingdom, featuring King Ezekiel, the Sanctuary, featuring Negan, and the Junkyard, featuring Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh).  

McFarlane Toys (Limited Edition) (TBA)

McFarlane Toys is expected to release another limited edition as they have in past seasons, including a screwdriver walker head for season 2, a walker head fish tank for season 3, an embedded tree walker for season 4, a charred concrete walker for season 5, a shredded truck walker for season 6, and a spiky Winslow walker for season 7. 

Standard Edition

The standard edition, featuring season 8 key art, can be found wherever Blu-rays are sold, including the aforementioned retailers. 

Season 8 Synopsis

This season, Rick brings ‘All Out War’ to Negan and his forces. The Saviors are larger, better-equipped, and ruthless — but Rick and the unified communities are fighting for the promise of a brighter future. The battle lines are drawn as they launch into a kinetic, action-packed offensive.

At the very center — Rick, having been distracted by the conflict, has just returned home to learn that Carl, who heroically shepherded the Alexandrians to safety during Negan’s attack, has been bitten by a walker.

Once his sole motivation in this otherwise stark existence, Rick is forced to deal with this reality. Carl has always been a beacon of hope, a symbol for the remaining thread of humanity — lessons that the survivors around him would be wise to take with them as this war surges onward.

But Rick isn’t the only person who’s living in peril. Aaron and Enid are in a dire situation at Oceanside — unclear if they’re in friendly territory, or if they’ve just made new enemies. Father Gabriel will do his part in attempting to smuggle Dr. Carson safely back to the Hilltop and a pregnant Maggie is wrestling with the many moral gray areas that come with leadership during war. In a standoff with the Saviors, she must decide how to proceed with the dozens of POW lives she’s currently in control of, as well as new complications that come with being a leader.

In addition to the war, Negan continues to deal with struggles within his ranks as workers, traitors, and others’ thirst for power cause conflict at the Sanctuary. Having gifted the Saviors a major victory, Eugene’s loyalty is repeatedly tested as new obstacles present themselves.

As all-out-war consumes us, the line between good and evil continues to blur. People fighting for what they believe in. Everybody working together for something bigger — to feel safe and have a world worth living in.

The Walking Dead: The Complete Eighth Season releases August 21. The Walking Dead returns to AMC with its season 9 premiere this fall.