Greg Nicotero on How ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 Feels Like the Early Seasons

The Walking Dead executive producer and director Greg Nicotero made a concentrated effort in Season Nine to help make the show feel like its earliest seasons, bringing back more naturalistic dialogue and more intimate character interactions.

“This season’s all really been about going back to what made The Walking Dead great when we first started watching the show. I felt like it’s very much back to the DNA that we love,” Nicotero told Uproxx.

“The [Season Nine premiere], y’know, all the scenes that I shot… 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. They have real conversations, conversations that you give a sh-t about. ‘That’s what Rick is feeling! That’s what Daryl is feeling!’ They’re actually talking, and it’s the first time that we’ve done that in a long time, where there are not those ellipses of dot dot dot, and you leave it hanging out there. ‘I don’t know what’s going to come after.’ I’m like, ‘After what?’ Now we’re getting the chance to see these people interact with each other, and they care about each other. I loved it.”

Those stripped down interactions come as the series changes hands from five-season showrunner Scott Gimple to Angela Kang, who has served as a writer-producer on the series since Season Two. It was that season — centered around Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his band of survivors taking refuge on the Greene farm — where Nicotero made his series debut as director, first helming episode 211.

Nicotero is naturally protective of the season, which first started digging into and developing characters like Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), turning the bow-shooting, mouthy redneck survivor into a quick fan-favorite.

“Everyone’s always like, ‘Season Two, it’s really boring, Hershel’s farm,’ and I’m like, ‘F-ck you guys,’” he said. “Season Two is when we fell in love with Daryl! That’s when we fell in love with Carol! Because we took the time.”

Nicotero directs the season opener, penned by Kang. Appropriately titled ‘A New Beginning,’ 901 finds our survivors living in relative peacetime following an 18-month time jump where much has changed.

Like Kang, Nicotero is aware of the negativity that has marred the show in recent seasons. When speaking to Variety, Kang said this new season turned an eye towards addressing and correcting viewer complaints while telling fresh new stories closer in step with The Walking Dead‘s glory seasons — namely those earliest episodes steered by original showrunner Frank Darabont, who instilled within the series its initial rawness.

Lincoln, who steps away from the series in Season Nine, told ComicBook.com during San Diego Comic-Con the rejuvenated show “without a doubt” feels closer to Season One.

“We have to talk about Angela Kang if we talk about this season because she is the creative force this season. She’s been on the show since Season Two and I think she’s breathed new life into it and given us a collaborative feel on set and also just an energy,” Lincoln said. “A real positive energy. It feels like the show that I always thought we would get to when I shot the pilot in Atlanta nine years ago.”

The Walking Dead Season Nine launches Sunday at 9/8c on AMC.