‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9: Everything We Know

The Walking Dead has officially been renewed for a ninth season on AMC but the show may be a bit different moving forward with a behind-the-scenes shake up taking place.

The biggest change coming to the top-rated show on cable is a new showrunner. Scott Gimple, who took on the role in 2013. Beyond Season Eight of The Walking Dead, Gimple will move to the newly created role of Chief Content Officer, overseeing work in the entire Walking Dead universe — including the spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead and any other expansions which may come.

Taking his place will be Angela Kang. Outside of The Walking Dead, Kang is best known for a couple episodes of Terriers and and a pair of short films.

New Showrunner: Angela Kang

Kang has written and co-written a large number of Walking Dead episodes through its eight seasons, with her first coming early in the show’s second season. Here is a complete list:

Season Two:

• Secrets
• Judge, Jury, Executioner

Season Three:

• Say the Word
• I Ain’t a Judas

Season Four:

• Infected
• Still
• A (co-written with Gimple)

Season Five:

• Four Walls and a Roof (co-written with Corey Reed)
• Coda
• Try

Season Six:

• Thank You
• The Next World (co-written with Reed)
• The Same Boat

Season Seven:

• The Cell
• Sing Me a Song (co-written with Reed)
• Rock in the Road
• The Other Side
• The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (co-written with Gimple and Reed)

Season Eight:

• The Big Scary U (co-written with Gimple and David Leslie Johnson)
• The King, the Widow, and Rick (co-written with Reed)
• How It’s Gotta Be (co-written with Johnson)

To Kang’s credit, episodes such as The Big Scary U, The First Day of The Rest of Your Life, and A. Furthermore, some of her strongest work came in Season Five, one of The Walking Dead‘s best beloved seasons.

Character Development

As for what to expect in Kang’s leading of the AMC series: character development. Much of Kang’s work features dialogue heavy, developmental episodes. For example, episodes such as The Big Scary U, Rock in the Road, 

Kang also seems to have the best grip on Negan. The character shows his true inner conflict in her The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, The Big Scary U, and Sing Me A Song episodes have provided the show’s best-known villain his largest bits of depth. Most recently, The Big Scary U unveiled the villain’s backstory in arguably the best episode of Season Eight, to date, during an intimate scene between Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s villain and Seth Gilliam’s Father Gabriel.

With several of Kang’s episodes balancing a large number of characters (with exceptions such as The Cell), it’s possible some of the characters who haven’t been in the spotlight on the AMC series will step back into the frame. Characters such as Melissa McBride’s Carol or Ross Marquand’s Aaron deserve a bit more time to shine, with the former having joined the show in its earliest season and serving as one of the most talented members of the show’s cast.

The cast of The Walking Dead will be returning for the show’s ninth season, as well. Recent reports claim some of the show’s biggest stars are re-negotiating their contracts to continue their efforts on the AMC show. Sources tell ComicBook.com the actors will be returning to the show for the Fall of 2018 season which should begin production in late April.

The Crossover

The Walking Dead‘s eighth season leading directly into Fear the Walking Dead‘s fourth season is also a fact which can be deduced from information released about the sibling series’ upcoming episodes. Fear will premiere its first Season Four episode the moment The Walking Dead‘s Season Eight finale concludes. With Morgan joining the show and having revealed an appearance matching the timeline of his current appearance, it’s most likely a continuation of the character’s journey which began in the first episode of The Walking Dead.

The biggest question surrounding the crossover is whether or not it will effect Season Nine of The Walking Dead. Should Morgan Jones lead the characters from Fear to the east coast for a merging of the shows, he would be serving a role similar to that of Michonne’s in the comics. During the post-All Out War time jump, Michonne went missing only to return later as a member of the Oceanside community. Perhaps Morgan’s journey to Fear is a variation of a similar story?