When we left Rick and his dwindling crew of survivors in last spring's The Walking Dead Season 4 finale, the gang had become trapped in a train car on the Terminus compound, which looked to be inhabited by cannibals. Creator and producer Robert Kirkman promises this situation will be dealt with swiftly when The Walking Dead returns for Season 5 this October.
The AMC series is gearing up for its annual return to Comic-Con next weekend. To help prepare everyone, Robert Kirkman offered some new insight into the upcoming episodes, teasing the fate of the survivors in Entertainment Weekly's upcoming issue devoted to the big San Diego convention.
About that first returning episode, the mastermind behind the original comic book had this to say,
"In our first episode, it's very much going to focus on the story of Terminus. There's a lot of big revelations that haven't really come out that I think people are gonna be pretty startled by. There's a couple other revelations that I think people might've gotten a little bit of a lead on. We'll definitely be defining those in some cool ways and confirming some theories and shooting down others, which is very exciting. But I think the coolest thing about coming back to season 5 is that we really hit the ground running. What I mean by that is that we very quickly deal with the situation that we left them in - this trapped, victim situation where they're kind of at the mercy of the people of Terminus. We really kind of expand the story from there very rapidly, so I think this is going to be a pretty fast-paced season with quite a bit going on. News is already out that Seth Gilliam has been added, and we're bringing in new characters like we always do, and I think season 5 is going to be our best season yet. I think when people finally see the premiere, they'll see what I'm talking about."
Robert Kirkman went onto explain the character Seth Gilliam will be playing this season,
"He's playing a character that's very integral to the future of The Walking Dead. Who he is possibly a very large hint to where the story is gonna go, if you've read the comic book series. So, we are playing that as close to the vest as the spy photos will allow, but all will be revealed very soon."
He then talked about the mix of new characters verus characters from the comic books as they will be brought into the show,
"There's a lot of new stuff coming. Look, the thing that makes me the most proud of The Walking Dead is the fact that it is such a continually evolving show. We never rest on our laurels, we never go "that status quo works, let's figure out a way to stay in that mode." We're always pushing boundaries and doing new things and changing the ways we tell stories. We tried some new things in The Walking Dead Season 4 and they worked pretty well and they helped tell some really great stories, and we've done that and now we're moving on. We're gonna do some new stuff, and a lot of that involves bringing in a lot of new characters. There's going to be some big changes ahead, and it's gonna all be cool stuff."
Steven Yeun, who plays Glenn, also had some comments on the upcoming episodes and what we'll see happening in The Walking Dead Season 5,
"I remember a couple of scenes I would look over at what was going on in the scene and I would be like, 'What the eff? What are we doing? How is this legal?' It's grounded and real, too; it's not like torture or gore for no reason. It's literally, that is what would happen and we are trying to show it. It would not work on network television, let me tell you that."
A couple of photos were also released, which give us a new look at Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Carol (Melissa Suzanne McBride) and Judith (aka Little Asskicker), Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Tyreese (Chad Coleman).
