Showrunner on What a New Logo Means for ‘The Walking Dead’

Angela Kang, new showrunner on The Walking Dead Season Nine, has confirmed the series’ just-debuted and rejuvenated logo will end the main title credits and is reflective of this season’s themes of rebuilding and rebirth.

“In previous seasons, the logo in the main titles was gradually decaying along with the world and the zombies in the show,” Kang revealed to INSIDER.

“The solid stone letters overgrown with greenery in the season 9 logo reflects the fact that we’re jumping into a new chapter of the story where our characters are rebuilding and nature is thriving — for better and worse.”

The Walking Dead logo has slowly decayed since Season One, reflecting the dissolution of the world and its inhabitants. With Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and company shepherding in a new world, the logo undergoes a similar overhaul:

Kang said previously the 18-months-later time jump has given way to “a fun Western vibe,” as Season Nine explores navigating the trials and tribulations of reviving society — as Rick chases the hopeful future laid out to him by a dying Carl (Chandler Riggs).

“We are going into a period where a lot of the things that we’ve seen in previous seasons have broken down, so they’ve got these horses and carriages that are being drawn around instead of cars. Things are lit with oil lamps. People are using different kinds of weaponry,” Kang told EW. “There’s a real grittiness to it that I think will be fun and fresh for the viewers.”

The semi-rebooted series is “better this year” under Kang, Daryl Dixon star Norman Reedus told MTV during San Diego Comic-Con. “She’s breathed new life into this show, in different ways that we didn’t expect. She’s killing it,” Reedus said. “Every episode this year feels like a western, it’s awesome.”

We see our survivors a year and a half after the end of the war, rebuilding civilization under Rick’s steadfast leadership. It is a time of relative peace among the communities as they work together, looking to the past to forge the future, but the world they knew is rapidly changing as man-made structures continue to degrade, and nature takes over, changing the landscape and creating new challenges for our survivors.

As time passes, the communities confront unexpected obstacles, danger, and of course, walkers, but nothing quite prepares them for the formidable force they are about to encounter, which threatens the very idea of civilization that our survivors have worked so hard to build.

The Walking Dead Season Nine debuts Sunday, October 7 on AMC.