Five Reasons to Watch ‘The Walking Dead’ in Season 9

The Walking Dead returns in early October with its best episodes in years.

The AMC series spent three seasons to cover three weeks of time within its world but follows a time jump with a break neck pace. However, that’s not to say the ensemble cast isn’t on display, offering an abundance of moments which develop characters and relationships to interesting new points.

Scattered throughout Season Seven and Season Eight of the AMC series are a few good episodes but they were all-too-often preceded by hours of bullets meaninglessly flying without sufficient feeling of stakes, characters being overlooked, or fan-favorites being left out entirely. Season Nine aims to change that, with Angela Kang stepping in as showrunner, with a very clear focus on character.

It’s not enough to say that The Walking Dead is returning to its glory days — at least through three episodes — or that it at its best in years. It’s a brilliant and revitalized return but many potential audience members will need a bit of convincing.

So, below are five reasons to watch The Walking Dead when it returns for Season Nine on October 7.

Rick’s Exit

Whether each potential audience member is one of those people who say, “Oh, I stopped watching back in Season Three or something,” or they have been invested in the series all along, Rick’s exit will be something all The Walking Dead fans — big or small — should experience.

Andrew Lincoln has dedicated eight years to the series. Agree or disagree with the choices made by creatives along the way, Lincoln’s journey as Rick Grimes is a true accomplishment within the history of television. Not only has he poured emotion, intensity, nuance, and grace into each performance, but Lincoln has left a lasting impression on every co-star, crew member, and fan he has crossed paths with.

The British actor has earned his wish of heading home to spend more time with his family and his departure from the series, be it open-ended or via the death of Rick Grimes, deserves a ratings spike.

Characters

Kang seems to have an understanding of something very important for The Walking Dead‘s success: Fans are not in love with the world of The Walking Dead. They are compelled by interesting characters, relationships, and drama.

In Season Nine, characters will take the time to talk to one another rather than letting grimacing looks and loud guns speak for them. “Characters argue and there is no feeling of the audience being smarter than them,” ComicBook.com’s Season Nine review reads. “Instead, it’s a debate of what is right, what is logical, and what is safe but each element is actually thought through and discussed rather than brushed over to continue a battle.”

In fact, executive producer Greg Nicotero is not unaware of the fact that characters haven’t spent much time communicating in recent seasons.

“This season’s all really been about going back to what made The Walking Dead great when we first started watching the show,” Nicotero said. “I feel like it’s very much back to the DNA that we love. The first episode, all of the scenes that I shot that it’s like Daryl and Carol, and Daryl and Maggie. They’re all isolated. There’s nobody else in those frames. I wanted you to be leaning in and listening to everything that they’re saying because they say more than two or three f—ing things. They have real conversations. Conversations that you give a s— about. You’re like,’”Oh, that’s what Rick is feeling. That’s what Daryl’s feeling.’ They’re actually talking. It’s the first time we’ve done that in a long time where there’s not those little ellipses of dot, dot, dot and you leave it hanging out there.”

The Whisperers

After Rick exits the series, The Walking Dead will look to find redemption among comic fans by following one of the most popular villain stories by introducing the Whisperers.

The AMC show has taken many liberties by comparison to its source material from Robert Kirkman. While very little details regarding the group as they’ll appear on the series have been revealed, the casting of Ryan Hurst as Beta sent shockwaves through the fanbase. It is only helped by Samantha Morton’s role as Alpha being revealed.

“We’ll go into a really great storyline that people are anticipating, called the Whisperers,” new showrunner Angela Kang said on The Walking Dead Season Nine Preview Special. “If you’re a fan of the comic you know exactly what that means, although the way we do it may not be exactly the way it goes in the comic — we always remix things — and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s better to learn as you go along.”

Mystery

After taking into consideration the threatening world and the characters of The Walking Dead‘s earliest seasons, there is one more element which helped it become beloved: mystery.

Season Nine introduces several interesting and mysterious storylines, right off of the bat. Some of these mysteries involve characters or issues of trust. Some other mysteries create world-building opportunities or new areas and locations to explore. The best part: many of the mysteries have quick, surprising, and rewarding payoff.

“I love when the show goes into the urban environment,” Nicotero said. “Woods are f—ing woods. You see trees, and you never get a sense of what the world looks like until you walk into a street. That whole opening sequence is my homage to George Romero. It’s the opening of Day of the Dead.”

Nostalgia

Eight years and 115 episodes into its run, The Walking Dead has developed a history. In 2010, the show launched with a very different set of cast members in a very different setting.

In Season Nine, The Walking Dead not only recaptures the crucial vibes of the first seasons but also outright calls back to moments and characters fans love to hear about. The legacy of late characters is not only mentioned but felt, heavily. 

“References to the show’s earliest days are on display in Season Nine, both in reflective moments recreating scenes or feelings (like riding on horseback through a major city or clearing long, dark hallways of walkers) and in outright callbacks,” ComicBook.com’s review reads. “Perhaps it’s a service to fans who have stuck with Lincoln since his debut as Rick Grimes on Halloween of 2010 but an interrogation scene in which he mentions having done this in the past while simultaneously referencing a rooftop in Atlanta is enough to leave a smile on the biggest fan’s face.”