Women Characters Will Drive ‘The Walking Dead’ in Season 9

The women of The Walking Dead will be stepping up into leadership roles for the AMC show in Season Nine.

With Angela Kang stepping in as showrunner, serving as the zombie drama’s first woman-in-charge, the female survivors are going to see a beefed up role under her reign. “We’re going to see our women really step up,” Kang told EW. “And we’re gonna show a lot of stories about leadership with Maggie, with Michonne, with Carol. And they’re gonna go toe to toe with each other and with our men.”

The Season Eight finale which concluded the All Out War saga seemed to be pitting Maggie against Rick Grimes, which seems to be the proper fuel for men and women to be going “toe to toe.” As it turns out, that might just be the beginning. Kang says audiences will “see some changes in the way that they deal with each other.” Much of the differences will inevitably arise from the fact that Rick elected to keep Negan alive. Going forward, this might just be a major story driver between the surviving characters who met in the The Walking Dead‘s second season on Hershel’s farm.

“We’re interested in human drama and the emotional bonds between people,” Kang said. “And we know from the end of the previous season that maybe not everybody was on board with the decision to save Negan. So we’ll be exploring some of those stories as we go forward.”

With only five characters remaining on the AMC show from its earliest days (Rick, Daryl, Carol, Maggie, and Michonne), supporting characters will be stepping up and new relationships will emerge.

“We’ll see some really complex relationship work,” Kang said. “And I’m so proud of the work that our women are doing on the show, and I’m really excited for our audience to see it because they’re having so much fun with each other. They’re just killing it.”

As for the Whisperers, lead by the villainous Alpha, Kang is keeping secrets. “I don’t wanna spoil anything for the fans,” Kang said. “I’m gonna say, watch and see.”

The Walking Dead will return for its ninth season in the fall. Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC, returning for the second half of its fourth season on August 12th. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.