A new walker variant means new problems on the final season ofThe Walking Dead. "I've heard stories of walkers that can climb walls and open doors. I was never sure if they were just stories," said Aaron (Ross Marquand) in the show's San Diego Comic-Con trailer, revealing what appeared to be zombies with brraaiinnss. But beforeThe Walking Deadends with its last episodes, premiering October 2 on AMC, the zombie drama is going back to the beginning: by bringing back "smart" walkers not seen on the flagship since its first season.
"There's a reason why he's saying those particular words," showrunner Angela Kang teased in an interview withEWabout Aaron's ominous dialogue. "And it will cause some massive problems for our people."
The trailer showed just that: a walker climbing a fence and a turning doorknob. "We've seen that on the show before," noted AMC'sWalking DeadUniverse chief content officer and executive producer Scott M. Gimple, referring to walkers who exhibited more human-like behavior in the show's earliest episodes.
In one, a little girl walker picks up a bloodied teddy bear before Morgan's (Lennie James) reanimated wife tries opening the door to their family home. In another, flesh-hungry walkers scale a gate and smash a department store window with a rock to get inside.
"It has escaped discussion on the show. You can see in the trailer, there's some different behavior, but this isn't any sort of reinvention," Gimple said. "It's addressing something that is inside the show already. The calls are coming from inside the house."
Director and executive producer Greg Nicotero, who has served asThe Walking Dead's special makeup effects guru since 2010, explained the inconsistencies in walker behavior: producers were still working out whichkindof walkers were roaming in the live-action adaptation of creator Robert Kirkman's comic book.
"The truth is we hadn't really figured out yet what the rules for the zombies were. They were also a bit faster in the first episode when they chased Rick down the street on his horse," said Nicotero of the pilot from then-showrunner Frank Darabont, whose walker rules did not live on in later seasons. "There's another scene where Glenn and Rick are being chased down the alley and they start climbing up a fire escape. And there are walkers climbing up behind them. We were still figuring it out. But we decided that it was an opportunity."
As for why these walkers seemingly disappeared for 12 years, Nicotero explained, "We sort of played into that as if there might be certain walkers in certain regions that might have different abilities that we really haven't seen before. We're kind of playing into the idea that some of these are out there and they're just encountering them now."
Over onThe Walking Dead: World Beyond, CDC virologist Dr. Edwin Jenner (Noah Emmerich) a character also not seen since the first season ofThe Walking Deadcoined the term "variant cohorts"for French walkers who appeared to be faster and stronger than regular roamers. According to Gimple, that's less to do withThe Walking Deadand more of a problem for Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), who will find himself in France in his solo spinoff series taking place after the flagship series ends.
"These are very distinct environments and very distinct landscapes," Gimple said of France and Ohio, where the Commonwealth is located on The Walking Dead. "[TheWorld Beyondcoda] was out in Europe. But we know someone who's going to be out there, so he might have his hands full."
The Walking Dead: The Last Episodesbegin October 2 on AMC and with atwo-episode premiereon AMC+.
Follow@CameronBonomoloand@NewsOfTheDeadon Twitter for TWD Universe coverage all season long.
Here is the original post:
The Walking Dead's New Smart Zombies Are Rooted in the Show's First Episodes - ComicBook.com
- John 5 says he hasn't spoken to Rob Zombie since leaving his band to join Motley Crue - Metal Edge - May 13th, 2023
- Could Zombie-Ant Fungus Really Be The Last of Us?' NYC Expert Weighs In - NBC New York - April 27th, 2023
- Dead Island 2 review: an RPG as mindless as its zombies - Polygon - April 19th, 2023
- Top 5 cases of zombies from the real world - Medical News Today - April 8th, 2023
- Edmonton is where you want to be when the zombie apocalypse comes, study finds - National Post - March 23rd, 2023
- John Hennigan on Zombie Lumberjack Match: Damian Priests Reaction and Getting Ribbed By A Zombie - Fightful - March 6th, 2023
- The 30 Essential Zombie Movies to Watch - Rotten Tomatoes - February 18th, 2023
- The year of the zombie: How HBO's mega-budgeted The Last of Us took over the province from Waterton to Grande Prairie - Calgary Herald - January 9th, 2023
- Year Ender 2022: From Zombie Virus Discovery to Elon Musk Twitter Takeover and Creation of Artificial Sun, - LatestLY - December 24th, 2022
- Zombie Reddy Famed Director Prasanth Varmas Upcoming Film Hanu-Man To Have A Crucial Underwater Sequence? Heres What We Know - Koimoi - December 24th, 2022
- Scientists Revive 'Zombie' Virus After 50000 Years Trapped in Siberian Permafrost - Common Dreams - November 27th, 2022
- Stop with the Madbomb, youre doing Civil War: Captain America 3 Was Initially Conceived to Be a Terrifying Zombie Thriller Testing Chris Evans Limits... - November 27th, 2022
- THE MUNSTERS: Rob Zombie Returns To Spook Audiences This Halloween - Film Inquiry - October 11th, 2022
- The Loneliest Boy in the World Review: Brainless Zombie Comedy Features Too Many Elbows to the Ribs - TheWrap - October 11th, 2022
- There were few brave enough to join 6th annual Zombie Run - Wadena Pioneer Journal - October 11th, 2022
- New study: Massachusetts would have 4.4 million zombies in apocalypse - Wicked Local - October 11th, 2022
- Zombie Captain America Takes A Bite Out of Crime with shopDisney - Bleeding Cool News - October 11th, 2022
- Silver Spring Zombie Walk Returns Oct. 29 - Source of the Spring - October 11th, 2022
- Kanye West hits back at Gigi Hadid, calls her a 'privileged Karen' and 'zombie' - Page Six - October 11th, 2022
- Did You Spot the Freddy Krueger Zombie On "The Walking Dead" This Past Sunday? [Image] - Bloody Disgusting - October 11th, 2022
- Members of JUDAS PRIEST, GUNS N' ROSES, WHITE ZOMBIE, THE CULT And More Donate Iconic Items to KITTEN ... - Metal Injection - October 11th, 2022
- This weekend in Anchorage: Zombie Half Marathon runs scared and Make It Alaskan Festival returns - Anchorage Daily News - October 11th, 2022
- Terrifying Rabid Zombie Coyote Attempts To Kick In Glass Window Of Someone's Home - Whiskey Riff - October 11th, 2022
- How a zombie apocalypse is informing a new wave of Dem ads - POLITICO - September 24th, 2022
- Get ready for the zombie apocalypse | UNC-Chapel Hill - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - September 24th, 2022
- 'An Army of Zombies Is Leading Us to Hell': A Russian Who Fled Putin's Draft Speaks Out - The Atlantic - September 24th, 2022
- Geneva High School theater to show '10 Ways to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse!' - Daily Herald - September 24th, 2022
- Zombie Wasp Pictured After Parasitic Fungi Took Over Its Body - Newsweek - September 24th, 2022
- An Malnourished Zombie Horror Tears Strips off the Streaming Ranks - We Got This Covered - September 24th, 2022
- You Can Get A Whole Daycare Of Zombie Babies Just In Time For Halloween - Totally The Bomb - September 24th, 2022
- Halloween invasion of Newquay by zombies will thrill and scare you - Cornwall Live - September 24th, 2022
- Chucky To Become A Zombie? - Giant Freakin Robot - September 24th, 2022
- TGS 2022: Hands-On with KEMCO's Upcoming Horror RPG 'Zombie of the Dot' TouchArcade - Touch Arcade - September 24th, 2022
- 'The Munsters': Rob Zombie on Giving Fans the Prequel They've Been Waiting For - Blue Mountain Eagle - September 24th, 2022
- Covers Uncovered - Nick Percival's Zombie Dredd Takes The Throne For Megazine 448 | 2000 AD - 2000 AD - September 24th, 2022
- Robots, NatCons, and the Zombie Apocalypse - The Bulwark - September 24th, 2022
- Zombie horror-comedy The Loneliest Boy in the World gets a trailer and poster - Flickering Myth - September 24th, 2022
- The story of how Zombie Nation became a Welsh techno anthem - Nation.Cymru - September 24th, 2022
- Visiting This Secluded Zombie Town In Texas Is One You Will Enjoy - klaq.com - September 24th, 2022
- Most bizarre September 24 Doomsday conspiracy theories from aliens & zombies to WWIII after eerie solar... - The US Sun - September 24th, 2022
- Do you have 'zombie trees' in your yard? Here's how to spot them - Fox Weather - September 16th, 2022
- A Zombie Idea: Saving Agricultural Water Through Technology - The Paper. - September 16th, 2022
- The Beatles' 'Helter Skelter': Why Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson Covered the Song Together - Showbiz Cheat Sheet - September 16th, 2022
- Drop Dead: The Cabin CoD: Zombies Meets Stranger Things - UploadVR - September 16th, 2022
- Sitges Fanpitch Sets The Hour of the Sorcerer, Zombie Meteor, Bloody Mary (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety - September 16th, 2022
- Collected Is This A Zombie? Blu-ray Released Monday - Anime News Network - September 16th, 2022
- Dreamy popsicle cocktails are having a moment in the Bay Area - San Francisco Chronicle - September 16th, 2022
- The Office's Dunder Mifflin is Recreated in The Last of Us Part 1 Remake - Esquire - September 16th, 2022
- Pedro Snchez only lacks the zombies, but what would they be like? - Gearrice - September 16th, 2022
- The Asbury Park Zombie Walk 2022 is here! - 94.5 PST - September 8th, 2022
- Glaciers and "zombie ice": The planet is melting at both ends, research finds - Salon - September 8th, 2022
- Zombies are coming - The Brewton Standard - Brewton Standard - September 8th, 2022
- Commentary: September is the time to prepare for the 'zombie apocalypse' - Standard-Examiner - September 8th, 2022
- Top 5 Zombie Games to Survive in this September 2022 - ClutchPoints - September 8th, 2022
- No zombie zone: Forest Service orders removal of reported film set in Green Canyon that went too far - The Herald Journal - September 8th, 2022
- Everyone loves a good zombie, apparently | What the Heckle? - Colorado Springs Gazette - September 8th, 2022
- 'Sins of Our Mother': Lori Vallow Claimed Her Children Had Turned Into 'Zombies' Before Their Disappearance - Showbiz Cheat Sheet - September 8th, 2022
- Zoinks! The 10 Best 'Scooby-Doo' Films, From 'Monsters Unleashed' to 'Zombie Island' - Variety - September 8th, 2022
- 13 Great Funny Movies About Vampires, Zombies, And Other Classic Monsters - CinemaBlend - September 8th, 2022
- The Munsters: This Rock Legend Is Making An Unexpected Cameo in Rob Zombies Prequel - Dread Central - September 8th, 2022
- Light House Studio's Youth Film Festival covers everything from A to zombies - The Daily Progress - September 8th, 2022
- The Greatest Zombie Movie Of All Time Is Streaming For Free - Giant Freakin Robot - August 22nd, 2022
- TV, Interrupted: Post-Zombie Apocalypse Series In The Flesh Was Buried Too Soon - /Film - August 22nd, 2022
- 'Tales of the Walking Dead' Season One, Episode Two Recap - Vulture - August 22nd, 2022
- 'Zombie fungus' bursts out of a dead fly in contest-winning photo - Livescience.com - August 22nd, 2022
- Sally Phillips: How would I survive a zombie attack? Get another puppy - The Guardian - August 22nd, 2022
- Apocalypse arrives for the 'zombie' companies haunting UK growth - The Telegraph - August 22nd, 2022
- 60 Songs That Explain the 90s: The Cranberries, Zombie - The Ringer - August 22nd, 2022
- Did Congress just warn of a zombie attack? No, that video is fake, and satirical - PolitiFact - August 22nd, 2022
- 10 years ago, one incredible zombie movie redefined an entire style of film - Inverse - August 22nd, 2022
- ZOMBIE PROPERTY COUNT INCHES UP AGAIN IN THIRD QUARTER OF 2022 ACROSS U.S. AMID CONTINUED RISE IN FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY - PR Newswire - August 22nd, 2022
- I wore a metaverse suit into a terrifying Zombie VR world Im still haunted by it... - The US Sun - August 22nd, 2022
- Dungeon Munchies is an RPG platformer where you're a zombie, and worse, an unpaid intern - PC Gamer - August 22nd, 2022
- Insiders tell of 'zombie government' as Johnson lives it up in Greece on holiday - The National - August 22nd, 2022
- Zombie Infection Simulation - The Original - kevan - August 14th, 2022
- Tales of the Walking Dead an anthology of zombie apocalypse survivor tales - Boston Herald - August 14th, 2022
- The Walking Dead Season 11 Part 3 Will Finally Address Series Smart Zombies - Game Revolution - August 14th, 2022
- James Gunn Reminds Fan That He Already Made a Zombie Movie - We Got This Covered - August 14th, 2022
- Review: A zombie movie in vampire's clothing, Netflix's Day Shift is a nightmare - The Globe and Mail - August 14th, 2022
- How The Thames, Once a 'Zombie River,' Was Brought Back to Life - Atlas Obscura - August 14th, 2022
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero