In the official teaser for the upcoming ninth season of AMC hit show The Walking Dead, last season's tension building decision by Rick to keep Negan alive and end the war seems to have had lasting effects on how the arbiters of this new society will interact. The 16-episode season will premiere on October 7th and skips ahead approximately 18 months from where the previous season left off. This time-jump lines up with the comic book series' "All Out War" story arc, and will structure around the rules of the new society the characters attempt to build under the newfound postwar world.
New showrunner Angela Kang was awarded her position in January and had the following to say about the new season, "Because we're jumping forward in time, there will be some exciting new things about the look of the show. The world is starting to break down and nature is taking over… It's a fun evolution we're playing with." Kang originally started on the show as a story editor, becoming a writer during the second season and quickly promoted to producer in the third. Other accomplishments of hers include writing several episodes throughout the seasons, notably the top-rated Season 4 finale.
With the decline in viewership over the past few seasons, loyal fans can expect Kang and crew to pull out some big movies to inject life into the nearly decade-old show. Viewers expecting the show to follow the comic closely are in for a surprise as well, as Kang told Hollywood Reporter in a July interview:
"We've always had to remix things, and I think that's one of the things that keeps the show exciting and fresh –– and Kirkman himself has always been, 'Yeah, go ahead, change that up! I wrote that 10 years ago, I would have done that much better now.'He has such a great attitude about it."
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 7th.
