The Walking Dead Showrunner Teases The Huge Time Jump Coming Soon

The war has begun on The Walking Dead. When it concludes, there will be a major decision coming on behalf of the writers.

As the story goes in Robert Kirkman‘s comics, the issues following the All Out War arc see a major time jump of what is estimated to be about two years time. A definitive amount of time is never revealed but it’s significant enough for Alexandria to have established a real civilization.

Rick actor Andrew Lincoln has already teased the time jump coming to the live action adaptation on AMC while talking to ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview. “Also, maybe in a couple of episodes time, there may be a jump ahead in the curve and maybe setting themselves to that job at hand,” Lincoln said.

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Now, showrunner Scott Gimple and writer/creator Robert Kirkman have weighed in during a chat with THR.

“For the people who read the comics, they’re going to be expecting this,” Gimple said. “We’re doing the book, we do all sorts of variations on it, and then we do things that are inspired by it and then we change things up with a remix. But I will say there are things that happen in that time jump that are referred to that are super interesting. And thus we might see some of that stuff; it might not be the same sort of jump, or we’ll do that two to five years in real time.”

“We’ve talked about whether or not we’ll do everything that’s happened in the comics, all the way up to the most recent issue,” Kirkman said. “That’s something that Scott and I are talking about all the time, and we sit down with all the producers and discuss what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it because there’s a tremendous amount of budget involved and strategic planning on how to keep the show going. We need to know these things and being able to know these things years in advance is what helps us make this show possible. So we’ve discussed everything.”

During the unseen time in The Walking Dead comic, Michonne relinquishes herself from Alexandria and takes up residence at the Oceanside community. She no longer wishes to fight. It’s a role which has quite clearly been handed over to Carol for filling out on the TV series.

“I’ve had a general plan for a long time, and invariably when I do that, there are little things that catch and change that plan,” Gimple said of possibly sending Carol packing. “But in general, I think there’s going to be a little bit more content that Robert actually refers to. There’s stuff in there that I was reading that I wondered about, and when I wonder about stuff that I like, I like getting into that stuff [on the show]. We’re definitely going to honor it and do it, but we’re definitely going to have either more of it or possibly do it in a different way.”

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The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season in October of 2017. The first trailer will arrive at San Diego Comic Con in July. For complete coverage and insider info all off-season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.