‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8 Will “Thin The Herd”

You can’t have a war without deaths, right? According to Steven Ogg, The Walking Dead Season Eight would agree.

After spending an entire season expanding the world of the zombie apocalypse, The Walking Dead is ready to cut its character count with Season Eight as Rick’s community rallies to take on Negan and the Saviors. The story arc is called “All Out War” in the comics and will be just that as it comes to television. Speaking to the show’s Simon actor Ogg, ComicBook.com heard an ominous tease about the upcoming 16-episode run after asking if the war comes with deaths.

“Yeah, I mean s—, it’s like whenever people say, ‘Are you going to die? Or do you know yet?’” Ogg said. “Yeah, everyone’s going to die at some point, right? They all die.”

Such a fact leads Ogg to a powerful description of the season. “Yeah, let’s thin the herd, man, let’s thin the herd,” Ogg said.

Losing some members of The Walking Dead family might be hard for Ogg and ccompany, though. The actor has nothing but love for each of his co-stars. “Everyone is so welcoming and so wonderful,” Ogg said. “They’re all ridiculously close off the set that they just make you feel completely welcome and it was such a safe environment that you immediately feel like, all right, you’re excited. Let’s get down to it, like ‘What do we get to play today?’”

“They make it feel, and this extends throughout, really, everyone — production, and cast — there’s no feeling like you’re lesser than. Andrew [Lincoln] is number one on the call sheet, and he is number one and he sets the tone, and it just bleeds over to everyone,” Ogg continued. “That everyone is just so great and there’s no, you’re just this person, or your number 300 on the call sheet, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is in this together, and you feel it. You feel the team, you feel the love, you feel the support and the trust, and I think it’s what really makes it special. I think it reflects on the show, too.”

As for who Ogg is referring to as far as the herd being thinned, there are a few characters more likely to bow out in Season Eight than others, while Ogg is still celebrating his promotion to series regular.

Ogg’s role in The Walking Dead can be caught in The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season which is available on Blu-ray now.

The Walking Dead‘s sibling series Fear the Walking Dead returns September 10th. The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season on October 22, 2017. The Season Eight premiere will mark 100 episodes overall for the popular AMC series. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.