Greg Nicotero Promises "Dramatically Different" Season 8 Of 'The Walking Dead'

The Walking Dead executive producer and director Greg Nicotero is promising fans a “very [...]

The Walking Dead executive producer and director Greg Nicotero is promising fans a "very different" season with "a lot of action" when the hit zombie drama returns to AMC in October.

"Traditionally, the way The Walking Dead works is we kind of set up our first half of the season to lead us into this second half," Nicotero told ComicBook.com. "Usually the second half of the season kind of shoots us off into space, so when we lay these little seeds and as things start to germinate, something that happens in episode two may not pay off until episode 13. I feel like this first half is going to feel like the second half of most of our seasons where we're already kind of taking off and I think people are going to be blown away by it."

Nicotero points to new series villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as the impetus for the more action-heavy season, with three factions of heroes — the Alexandria Safe Zone, led by Rick (Andrew Lincoln), the Kingdom, led by Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and the Hilltop, led by Maggie (Lauren Cohan) — taking charge against the tyrant and his army. Now that the world building of seasons five through seven has paid off and the three communities are united in arms against the Saviors, The Walking Dead Season Eight looks to see the survivors rebuild.

"When we went into Season Seven, I remember Andy and I talking about it and being sort of excited that we were introducing these new worlds," Nicotero said. "We always knew that the introduction of Negan was going to be intense and was going to be heavy. Because number one, it's a complete left turn to the narrative up to that point. And to see your heroes with a boot on the back of their head, crushed into the mud, is never the most comfortable thing. But knowing where we ended the last season, it's not about surviving day to day, but how is society going to persevere for next week or next month or next year?"

"And we started getting into that at the end of last season with Rick and Michonne where they started realizing, 'Listen, it's not about me, it's not about you. It's about how we're going to go on,'" Nicotero noted. "And you know, the last speech in the finale was Maggie talking about Glenn, holding Hershel's watch, which is sort of a little precursor to what we're doing this season. Which is to remind people who Hershel was and who Glenn was and hearing Maggie talking about society and going forward. So there's a specific moment in this episode where one of the characters says, 'Is it enough? Is hope enough to get us through to the next level?' So that definitely plays a huge part in our narrative, for sure."

Season Eight will tackle the "All Out War" storyline, an arc well-known to comic book readers for drastically altering the world of The Walking Dead. At the end of it, Rick Grimes and allies look to rebuild their lives following their conflict with the Saviors, and turn an eye towards reconstructing society on a larger scale. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple recently acknowledged the arc will "absolutely" come to a close by the season finale, meaning The Walking Dead will evolve once more following the forthcoming batch of 16 episodes.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC with its 100th episode Sunday, October 22nd.

Episode 8x01S8:E1 The Walking Dead

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