'The Walking Dead' Is Giving Walkers a New Look for Season 9

There are quite a lot of changes coming to The Walking Dead when Season 9 arrives this month. A [...]

By Charlie Ridgely

There are quite a lot of changes coming to The Walking Dead when Season 9 arrives this month. A significant time jump is moving the show forward, all of the communities are getting along, and preparations are being made for two of the shows lead actors, Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan, to say goodbye.

In addition to these series-altering changes, the aesthetic of the show's walkers are also getting a pretty substantial update.

While speaking to EW about the new season, Walking Dead executive producer, director, and effects supervisor Greg Nicotero said that the time jump allows for some pretty disgusting updates to all of the undead walkers.

"There are so many," Nicotero replied when asked about new walkers. "Because of the time jump we've been able to really play up a much more decomposed and decrepit look. Our mid-ground makeup, and our background makeup, all of our stuff has been elevated. It feels much more like an Italian horror movie. I think there's more of a Lucio Fulci zombie flair to what we've been doing this season, just because of the fact that we really wanted to elevate the level of decomposition. Every walker that I shot in the first episode, they get close ups. It was important to me to make sure that the audience knows that the walkers are still very, very much a device to show how far the world has decomposed."

As Nicotero continued, he talked specifically about one of the rotting walkers that will be featured in the first Washington D.C. scene.

"The first zombie that we see in D.C., we designed that because I wanted the whole jaw to be hanging off," he explained. "And as it turns you can see through its face. And then the walker that they're stringing up in front of the sanctuary we put a blue nose on it and we erased the nose, because I just really wanted the audience to look at these and go, "Holy s***, these walkers are more decayed than we've ever seen them."

The Walking Dead returns for its ninth season on Oct. 7, 2018 at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return in 2019 for its fifth season. For more updates and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter!

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