Photo: AMC
Longtime The Walking Dead writer Angela Kang is stepping up to the plate in Season 9 as the series’ new showrunner, replacing Scott M. Gimple after a four-year run in the position. As expected (and always overhyped), big changes are being promised. However, the more things “change,” the more they stay the same. That, or revert back to an old standard.
Whether it’s from the dwindling ratings the past two seasons, or simply a matter of the Terminus and Alexandria story arcs being peak TWD, executive producer Greg Nicotero says Kang plans to harness that sweet “Season 4, Season 5 kind of vibe” in the upcoming ninth season of the show, set to hit AMC this October. Of course, if you’re not a huge fan of the “walking” aspect of the show, you may already be setting yourself up for a huge disappointment.
The times, they are a-changin’: 10 Things That Have Dramatically Changed On The Walking Dead Since the Beginning
Here’s what Nicotero had to say in full during his interview with Fandom regarding the new direction the series plans to take:
Especially looking back at where our show succeeds the most — in terms of the characters that have the best chemistry together and the locations that [worked well]. It’s always kind of nice to be on the road a little bit. Any time we’re sort of situated in one place for too long… I feel like the show is kind of morphing back into a Season 4, Season 5 kind of vibe.
The question remains: Is this enough to save a hit program that has hit the skids since killing off fan-favorite character Glenn Rhee (and Abraham) at the start of the show’s seventh season? Many of us, especially those who haven’t watched since Season 7 dropped off in quality, would say no. After all, we’ve already seen those seasons. Regardless of how good they were, lightning rarely strikes in the same place twice. Now that so many characters we love have either died (RIP, Bob) or gotten so uninteresting we wish they’d die (RIP Daryl?), it feels much more like grasping at straws.
