‘The Walking Dead’ Creator Robert Kirkman Returning to ‘Talking Dead’

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is returning to live aftershow Talking Dead, the series’ [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is returning to live aftershow Talking Dead, the series' Twitter account announced Thursday.

Kirkman will appear after Sunday's episode, which will discuss 907, "Stradivarius," with director and former Abraham Ford star Michael Cudlitz and newcomers Matt Lintz (Henry) and Dan Fogler (Luke).

The comic book author last visited the series in April, appearing as a guest on the episode trailing the first-ever crossover between The Walking Dead and spinoff Fear the Walking Dead.

Kirkman has been quieter about the television side of The Walking Dead in recent months: Kirkman retweeted a piece from EW ahead of the Season Nine premiere on October 7 and later advised audiences to tune in on November 4 for Rick Grimes star Andrew Lincoln's last episode of the series.

Last August, Kirkman inked a major overall deal with Amazon Studios, allowing its streaming service a first-look agreement that has since produced an in-the-works TV-MA animated adaptation of Kirkman's off-beat superhero comic book Invincible.

The creator is also embroiled in a massive profit-sharing lawsuit against Walking Dead network and producers AMC, in which he's aligned with series producers Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert as well as former producer and show runner Glen Mazzara.

Despite the series straying from Kirkman's comic books more than ever before — including the death of Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs), who plays a pivotal and ongoing role in the books, and the loss of Rick Grimes following Lincoln's decision to exit — Kirkman has expressed no animosity for the changes from his source material, which he has actively encouraged.

The show remixing the comics was "something we proved when I started on the show and [Robert] and I were sitting in the room and I was a writer and producer," executive producer and former showrunner Scott Gimple told EW in 2016.

"I was always wanting to hew as close to the comics as possible, and Robert was wanting to deviate to provide the readers with a new experience."

Gimple, who has since exited that role to become chief content officer for the entire Walking Dead brand for AMC, says the intention was always to "generate the same emotions and have a very direct interpretation of moments in the book — even if it's completely different — but still achieving the comic story."

Kirkman later admitted Carl's death on the television show was "upsetting," but revealed in a Tumblr Q&A he nonetheless supported the decision as "knowing what's coming out of it makes the loss a little easier."

"It's something that I've gotten used to, it happens from time to time on the show," Kirkman said of Carl's death during a March Talking Dead appearance.

"Really if anything, it just makes me more excited. I think that any time that path is not set, any time you can't look at a comic book series and go, 'oh, I know exactly what's going to happen,' it makes things a little bit more exciting. And dealing with those unknowns, when we're in the writers room, when we're working on Season Nine, all those changes that kind of snowball out from that, it just makes for a better show."

Future guests set to join host Chris Hardwick on the Talking Dead couch include Ross Marquand (Aaron), Tom Payne (Jesus), former Sophia Peletier star Madison Lintz, and series newcomers Nadia Hilkes (Magna) and Eleanor Matsuura (Yumiko).

The Walking Dead Season Nine premieres new episodes Sundays at 9/8c on AMC, immediately followed by new episodes of Talking Dead.

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