In its heyday, AMC's The Walking Dead was one of the most popular shows on television. Since then the franchise has grown with a number of spinoffs, as well as plans for a Rick Grimes movie. But the original series (which is streaming now with a Netflix subscription) has also had its share of criticism. And while people always complain about The Walking Dead Season 2, EP Greg Nicotero has a comment for the naysayers.

While folks are looking forward to upcoming Walking Dead shows, others are still unpacking the events of the original series. One common critique is that not enough happened in Season 2, which the survivors spent on Hershel's farm. While speaking with EW about the long-running franchise, he revealed why that lull in action was so key to the series as a whole. In his words:

Points were made. Season 2 is how Daryl and Carol ended up becoming each other's chosen family, and that remains a fan favorite pairing to this day. And that bond was originally formed during their time at The Farm, where Norman Reedus' signature character spent half the season searching (in vain) for Carol's missing daughter Sophia. Of course, the fandom knows how that ultimately played out.

While Glenn's Walking Dead death remains a controversial part of the show's tenure on the air, the plot of Season 2 has also got its fair amount of criticism over the years. But some important character work was being done during this time, including the love triangle between Shane, Lori, and Rick, as well as the blossoming friendship with Carol and Daryl. The latter relationship is still being explored with its spinoff Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol.

While some fans hoped that Daryl and Carol's relationship would on day become romantic, instead Greg Nicotero and company kept it one of platonic companionship and deep friendship. And that relationship needed Season 2's plot in order to grow. Nothing but respect for zombie Sophia.

Out of all the original Walking Dead cast members, folks probably didn't expect Norman Reedus' Daryl and Melissa McBride's Carol to be the last ones standing. But fans really responded to them, and the way they had each other's backs throughout the apocalyptic drama.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will return for the Carol-centric Season 2 on September 29. For now, check the TV premiere list to plan your next binge watch.

George A. Romero’s Creepshow holds a special place in the history of Stephen King adaptations. In addition to being just the fourth instance of the author’s work being translated into live-action, it’s the first film ever to be produced with a screenplay that King himself penned. Given this significance (let’s also not forget “The Raft” segment of Creepshow 2), it should hardly be a surprise that the beloved literary icon was sent a special email in 2018 when filmmaker Greg Nicotero was starting to develop a new Creepshow anthology series for the horror-centric streaming service Shudder.

Nicotero – whose King-related credits as a special makeup effects artist/supervisor include Creepshow 2, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie, Misery, The Green Mile, Desperation, and more – first became involved with the project while doing a press tour for The Walking Dead. According to an interview with SlashFilm, he was flying back from a trip to Australia and purchased an e-book copy of Nights Of The Living Dead: a collection of short stories all written to be concurrent with the events in George Romero’s classic Night Of The Living Dead. Despite the fact that he had spent more than half of the previous decade neck deep in zombie lore, Nicotero was so taken aback by one story that he decided to reach out to the author about making an adaptation.

The writer was named Craig Engler, and Greg Nicotero was surprised to find out that he is the General Manager of Shudder… which happens to be owned and operated by AMC Networks (the same company that produces The Walking Dead). Engler revealed that the streaming service was in the process of putting together a Creepshow series, and he asked if Nicotero would be interested in a position as a creative executive. It was an opportunity that he jumped at, and one of the first people he contacted after was Stephen King:

“Survivor Type,” the other story Stephen King suggested, was put on the back-burner to eventually be included as part of 2021’s A Creepshow Animated Special, but “Grey Matter” was given special prominence and was adapted as the first half of the episode that launched Creepshow when the anthology series premiered on Shudder in 2019. It clearly wasn’t made with a massive budget, and there are some notable changes from the source material, but between the cast and its Easter eggs, it’s very much a love letter to the author and a fun subject for this week’s Adapting Stephen King.

What “Grey Matter” Is About

Originally published in the October 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine before being featured as the seventh story in 1978’s Night Shift, “Grey Matter” is a short story that coincidentally shares a lot in common with Stephen King’s “Weeds” – which was printed about two and a half years later and was adapted as the “Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” segment of the original Creepshow (starring King himself as the titular character). They have their own individual settings and setups, but have similarities in their subjects of horror – namely boozers who get exposed to some kind of parasitic alien substance that destroys its host before becoming a threat that may end the human race.

“Grey Matter” begins in a very grounded place, however, as its initial spike of terror is delivered with a real-world horror: child abuse. On a dark and snow-hammered night in a small Maine town, a group of locals are gathered in the general store and are surprised when young and panicking Timmy Grenadine comes charging in the door. It surprises nobody to learn that Timmy’s father, Richie, has “been on a drunk,” but the kid exasperatingly explains that circumstances are far more dire than normal. The owner of the store, Henry, takes him into the back to learn the full story, and when he comes back out, he asks a couple of his customers (including the narrator) to brave the blizzard for a trip to the Grenadine household.

As the men trudge through the snow, Henry recounts what he learned from Timmy to his compatriots – explaining that the trouble was traced back to a bad beer. While throwing back a can a couple months prior, Richie complained of a terrible taste, but he swallowed the bulk of the liquid before recognizing it, and was unable to retch it up. A couple days later, his son began to recognize changes in his behavior, as he would insist on total darkness (even objecting to the light used by Timmy to do his homework) and wouldn’t do anything but sit around watching television.

Over time, the changes become much more severe, and as Henry and his troop arrive at the Grenadine house, they recognize the full extent of it. They discover not only that Richie has physically changed into a slime-covered monster, but one that has the ability to divide itself in two.

How Creepshow's “Grey Matter” Differs From Stephen King’s Short Story

Following “Weeds,” “The Crate,” and “The Raft,” “Grey Matter” is the third Stephen King short story to be adapted as a part of the Creepshow legacy, and it can be said to be on the same level as far as faithfulness is concerned. The majority of what’s on screen comes from what’s on the page, particularly when it comes to plot, but there are small changes (like the events taking place during a hurricane instead of a blizzard) and some major ones – the most significant being the alterations that teleplay writers Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi make with the main characters.

Timmy (Christopher Nathan) and Richie (Jesse C. Boyd) still play their respective roles in the adaptation, but the former encounters a very different group of people when he arrives at the general store looking to pick up a case of beer for the latter. Instead of the Nite Owl being owned by Henry Parmalee, Dixie (Adrienne Barbeau) is the proprietor of the shop in the Creepshow premiere, and while the shop in the King story is occupied by “five or six” regulars, the show features only two: Doc (Giancarlo Esposito) and Chief (Tobin Bell).

With Henry taken out of the story, the structure of Greg Nicotero’s “Grey Matter” operates differently than the source material. Instead of Timmy’s story being told to the Nite Owl owner and then later relayed while the protagonists move through stormy weather, the adaptation has the two parts of the story play out in parallel: while Doc and Chief go to give Richie a visit only knowing vague details about what’s been happening, Dixie stays with Timmy at the store and learns the horrible truth of what he has been going through with his father.

The tale that Timmy tells Dixie is basically the same as what’s in the short story, though it does have a more sinister twist at the end. In King’s version, the boy is an innocent victim of his father’s monstrous changes and is only a witness to what he does. In the show, Timmy is revealed to be a forced participant, as it’s revealed that he has been abducting neighborhood pets to feed to his father, and has also kidnapped a pair of twin girls (a newspaper article identifies them as the Grady twins from The Shining).

Lastly, there is the very end. Like the narrator in the short story, Doc runs back to the Nite Owl after his encounter with Richie Grenadine, but Stephen King’s version leans into ambiguity and terror instead of the straight horror that is featured in the Creepshow episode. While the adaptation has the grey slime monsters attacking the store and presumably killing Doc, Dixie, and Timmy, the original version simply has the narrator sitting and waiting in silence to learn if Henry survived, or if the creature’s exponential growth will eventually allow it to kill everything on Earth.

Is It Worthy Of The King?

If one hits the pause button at around the 2:45 mark in the first episode of Creepshow, one will instantly be able to recognize just how much Stephen King love went into the adaptation of “Grey Matter.” Looking at all of the missing pet posters (foreshadowing the reveals later in the story), there are a lot of names that will be familiar to Constant Readers, including cats named Church and Klovis (references to Pet Sematary and Sleepwalkers) and dogs named Cujo and Kojak (references to Cujo and The Stand).

Even before we see the aforementioned Grady twins newspaper article, hear the proto-IT reference that comes straight from the short story, and we remember that Adrienne Barbeau and Giancarlo Esposito are both Stephen King veteran actors (Creepshow and Maximum Overdrive), it’s clear that “Grey Matter” is in friendly and loving hands, and it’s all the easier to appreciate what the show does with the material.

Tight camera angles and limited sets suggest that the production didn’t have abundant resources, but Greg Nicotero and his fellow filmmakers make a lot of smart choices in telling the story – principal among them being the concurrent narratives separately following Doc and Chief and Timmy and Dixie. The twist with Timmy going the “extra mile” out of love for/fear of his father is a great, scary add, and the special effects work done to bring Richie Grenadine’s final form to life is extraordinary. If you know Nicotero’s history going into watching, it’s something that you very much expect and anticipate, and it in no way disappoints.

Like pretty much any anthology, Shudder’s Creepshow has peaks and valleys, but the show certainly got off to a strong start with a debut that is both a fun watch and a terrific way of honoring the Creepshow legacy. The series has now finished its third season, and sadly they have not yet done another live-action Stephen King adaptation, but my column about the Creepshow Animated Special will be here on CinemaBlend on December 28.

How To Watch Creepshow’s “Grey Matter”

As a Shudder original, the Creepshow TV series, has a permanent home on the streaming service, and you get instant access to it with a subscription, but that is not the exclusive way to watch Greg Nicotero’s adaptation of “Grey Matter.” Individual episodes and full seasons are available to purchase digitally at major online retailers including Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple, and Vudu. If you’re a physical media collector/working to build the Ultimate Stephen King Collection, you’re going to want to pick up a copy of Creepshow Season 1 on Blu-ray.

Next week’s Adapting Stephen King will be sticking around in the CinemaBlend Streaming section, as I’ll be doing a deep dive into Vincenzo Natali’s In The Tall Grass – the Netflix movie based on the novella of the same name co-written by King and his son, Joe Hill. Look for the column on the site next Wednesday, and meanwhile you can click through the banners below to discover all of previous features.

A television era has ended with the conclusion of The Walking Dead after eleven seasons and nearly 180 episodes, and the finale packed with emotional moments had to conclude in a way that at the very least left the door open for the spinoffs that are already in the works, if not actively set them up. As it turns out, the ending of the zombie apocalypse saga was reportedly changed relatively recently, and all due to the returns of Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes and Danai Gurira as Michonne.

The reports come via Insider, both from an interview with executive producer Greg Nicotero (who also directed the series finale) and sources who cite details about what would have happened if not for the Rick/MIchonne coda. Speaking with the outlet, Nicotern confirmed that a change happened, saying: 

The coda that brought back Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira for the first time in years was actually filmed in August, several months after Norman Reedus and Greg Nicotero celebrated the last day filming back in March. So it sounds like if the original ending was indeed the cut scene, then that ending was set for some time before those Rick and Michonne scenes were filmed. 

Nicotero evidently has not gone into further detail about the cut scene, but Insider cites two sources whose identities were kept anonymous with some reported details about what viewers didn’t see in the series finale on November 20. It’s said that the final scene would have been a callback to an iconic scene from the pilot (that was also used for Season 1 posters and promotional material), after Daryl departed for his own spinoff (which was originally set to also feature another TWD veteran). 

The scene reportedly would have shown a van modified to run on ethanol driving down the Freedom Parkway outside of Atlanta, a.k.a. the stretch of road that Rick rode on horseback in the beginning of the series shortly after he learned that the zombie apocalypse had happened while he was unconscious. Judith and RJ – now in their 20s – would be in the front seats, with similarly grown-up versions of Coco, Grace, and other kids in the back. 

The final line spoken by one of the longtime characters allegedly would have been RJ saying “If you can hear me, answer back. This is Rick Grimes.” Not only would that be another homage to his dad in the very early days of the series, but the very end would have had a survivor answering back. Instead, the series ended in a way that serves to set up the Rick and Michonne spinoff that will debut as part of the 2023 TV premiere schedule, although an official date has not yet been set. 

Sources state that the original ending “was fitting” from an emotional standpoint but not world-building, and that it might not have made sense to close this long-running show by featuring brand new actors playing familiar characters. Robert Kirkman’s comic series on which the show was based did end on a time jump of 25 years; such a long time jump simply didn’t happen on the show. 

Plus, a time jump that established what Judith and the others are up to years in the future could put a limit on potential other spinoffs. Star Wars fans have seen that franchise make the most of limited windows in the timeline for characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, and Cassian Andor. If The Walking Dead ever wants to revisit the stories of the kids, it may be best not to already set something in stone!

If the end of The Walking Dead has put you in the mood to revisit the early days, you’re in luck. The first ten seasons are available streaming with a Netflix subscription now. For another way to go on a blast to the past, check out the entire Walking Dead timeline up to the second half of Season 11!

 I still have trouble believing this sentence is one that matches up with confirmed reality, but The Walking Dead is coming to an end on AMC this year. The flagship zombie drama will shamble its final shamble in late 2022 with an eight-episode final stretch that will somehow find a way to conclude this eleven-season saga, and those episodes have now finished the principal filming process. Executive producer, frequent director, occasional guest-walker, and special effects master Greg Nicotero definitely made sure to mark the milestone occasion in video form, and he shared one with fans that features him and longtime star Norman Reedus' wistfully celebrating the end of an era.

While the cast and crew will no doubt be celebrating The Walking Dead conclusion in more jubilant and rowdy ways down the road, it's clear that Greg Nicotero and Norman Reedus (who was only recently injured in an on-set accident) are still smack dab in the middle of those feelings in the Instagram video below.

It’s no secret that neither Greg Nicotero nor Norman Reedus are actually finished with the Walking Dead universe themselves, with with the Daryl and Carol spinoff that’s on the way, not to mention Negan and Maggie’s Isle of the Dead, the anthology series, and the long-established Fear the Walking Dead. (Along with any other spinoffs on the way.) However, the existence of new projects on the horizon doesn’t take away from the significance of this particular series closing its “Dead Inside”-emblazoned doors for the final time.

Especially for these two in particular. Both Greg Nicotero and Norman Reedus were seasoned in TV work by the time The Walking Dead came along, with the former having worked on Deadwood and The Pacific, while the latter appeared on shows like Hawaii Five-0 and Law & Order: SVU. (Plus, they both worked on Showtime’s anthology series Masters of Horror.) But they were both far more well-known for their respective work on the film side of things, and rightfully so at the time. Twelve years can definitely change anyone’s career arc, though, and the AMC series was a complete game-changer for Nicotero and Reedus.

So I can imagine it’s going to be a massive change to move on from filming Season 11 knowing that they may never be within the Alexandria and Hilltop sets again, after calling them a second home for nearly half of the show’s existence. Thankfully, there are plenty of other co-stars and crew members to celebrate with, and some of the show’s current and past alum chimed in on Nicotero’s IG post with kind messages. 

•  Sending you and the entire TWD family so much f’n LOVE and congratulations!!!! XOXO - Stephen Ogg (Simon portrayer)
• Wow wow wow wow. So surreal. All my best to all of you. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ - Matt Negrete (writer/World Beyond showrunner)
• Love you both!!!! - Hilarie Burton (Lucille portrayer)
• 😍 - Emily Kenney (Beth portrayer)
• ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ - Eleanor Matsuura (Yumiko portrayer)
• Fuck, I can't believe it's over. What an epic journey for one of the greatest & most original TV series ever! - Slash (rock legend)

Okay, so Guns 'n' Roses guitar god Slash isn't part of The Walking Dead universe, but I couldn't resist. Walker Slash would looking exactly the same as normal Slash, I'd think. 

Oh, and let's not forget Norman Reedus' own response to Greg Nicotero's post.

• Love u so much buddy. As u know❤️ - Norman Reedus

As one of many shows coming to a close in 2022, The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m., with the show’s final midseason hiatus coming soon ahead of the final eight episodes. And don’t forget to tune into Fear the Walking Dead’s Season 7 return on Sunday, April 17, also at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's fifth episode of Season 11. Be warned!

The Walking Dead is definitely in the thick of Season 11 now, at five episodes in. (Or six, if you're staying current with AMC+.) And the installment titled "Out of the Ashes" gave fans some pretty big moments, including Yumiko's reunion with her brother, as well as Eugene's eventual arrest. There were also three separate appearances in the episode from characters, to to speak, that fans might not have immediately realized were more interesting and/or important than it first seemed.

While not an in-person cameo, The Walking Dead paid tribute to the comic book's plotline involving Michonne finding her long-lost daughter in the Commonwealth, by way of naming the bakery Elodie's, and by having their last name, Hawthorne, as one partner's name in the sign for a local firm. But we're talking about actual living and breathing people here, even if the actors aren't playing living and breathing people, so let's kick things off with a familial cameo.

Gus Morgan As Pajama Walker

Because The Walking Dead's teenage survivors can't possibly exist without being total douchebag bullies, Cailey Fleming's Judith has to stop a selection of Alexandria's Finest from risking their lives via a trapped child walker. It turns out that hungry-looking kid-zombie was portrayed by one Gus Morgan, son of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Walking Dead vet Hilarie Burton Morgan. The celeb offspring's appearance was first hinted at earlier this year by the Negan actor, but it wasn't clear at the time how it would all go down. For anyone wondering what his motivation was in the moment, here's what Gus Morgan said on the Talking Dead after show.

Ain't no party like a Gus Morgan taco party, 'cause a Gus Morgan taco party is founded on determination. Hats off to the young actor for finding his undead muse and delivering a disturbing lil performance. I guess it's too late to petition for him to be in any potential Negan spinoffs.

Greg Nicotero As Dream Whisperer

During Aaron's dream sequence in the early minutes of Episode 1105, he found himself being surrounded by various past villains from the show, and it's arguably one of the more noteworthy moments where The Walking Dead shows its characters suffering from PTSD-esque ailments. As it turns out, one of those nightmare Whisperers was actually TWD executive producer Greg Nicotero, who served as director for the episode. Here's how Aaron portrayer Ross Marquand described the experience to Decider:

Thankfully, Greg Nicotero's second cameo this season didn't end up as deadly as his first. While he only made a dream-set appearance here, the special effects master showed up previously in Episode 3 as the walker who signed Agatha's death warrant with its teeth. How much more of him can fans expect to see as the final season continues?

Margot Bingham As Ice Cream Woman

For those keeping track of the females coming and going in the life of Josh McDermitt's Eugene, it's clear that Season 11 is pulling some kind of a strange switcheroo on both viewers and on Eugene himself. A few episodes ago, Chelle Ramos was introduced as Stephanie, the woman from the Commonwealth that Eugene took kindly to via their radio communication. But viewers were already clued in on actress Margot Bingham having previously been cast in the role of Stephanie, and it was supposedly confirmed to be her voice that was on the radio.

So it was understandably baffling for many when Margot Bingham made her official in-person debut on The Walking Dead as someone who looked a little too put-together to just be a random extra. Not to mention her too-quick interaction with Eugene, in which he asked about the presence of Rocky Road in her ice cream cone assortment. Though she didn't say anything, and almost seemed surprised by the question, Stephanie did indeed mention in Season 10 that Rocky Road was her favorite flavor. Not that Eugene was aware whether or not any of the ice cream was actually for Bingham's character, and not that someone only has to ever get their favorite flavor from an ice cream truck. So Eugene was definitely harboring some suspicions, even if he likely shat them all out at the end of the episode when he was being arrested.

Will The Walking Dead clear up its Stephanie business before this chunk of Season 11 episodes is finished airing, or will we have to wait until Part 2 debuts? Be sure to watch every Sunday night on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET, with new episodes streaming a week early for AMC+ subscribers. Check out all the other big shows hitting the 2021 Fall TV schedule while waiting!

There are hit cable TV shows, and then there’s AMC’s The Walking Dead. The apocalyptic drama grew from a dark horse to a massive franchise including two spinoffs. Fans are also eager to see the developing Rick Grimes movie, and one Walking Dead boss explained the delay in Andrew Lincoln’s highly anticipated flick.

Rick Grimes was written out of The Walking Dead seasons ago, but it was also announced that he’d be back in a movie. What’s more, said movie is expected to get a full theatrical release, rather than one for TV. Unfortunately the project has been a long time coming, and Walking Dead directing-producer and special make-up effects supervisor Greg Nicotero recently opened up about this delay. When asked when filming will finally begin, he said:

Well, that was honest. It looks like the folks behind the upcoming Walking Dead movie are taking their time to nail down the script and story. And with film sets only now finally getting back to normal, there’s presumably a ton of factors behind the delay in Rick Grimes’s flick.

Greg Nicotero’s comments to ComicBook help to peel back the curtain on what it’s like within The Walking Dead universe. With so many zombie stories being told across the various TV shows, the team is certainly kept busy. And rather than turning out a Rick Grimes movie that’s subpar, it seems those involved are being particular with the long-awaited project.

Exactly what the story of The Walking Dead’s movie will contain remains a total mystery at this point. But the fact that the franchise is heading to theaters makes it clear that the apocalyptic property isn’t going anywhere-- even if the original series is preparing for its final season.

Andrew Lincoln starred as Rick Grimes throughout the first nine seasons of The Walking Dead, before being written off. In his final episode Rick destroyed the bridge between communities, and presumably himself, in order to protect his people. But a coda revealed Jadis/Anne finding his unconscious body, and loading Rick into a helicopter to destinations unknown.

It’s been years since the Rick Grimes movie was announced, so fans are getting understandably antsy for the mysterious project to finally start coming together. But the pressure is on for The Walking Dead to deliver in its first outing in theaters. If Andrew Lincoln’s project is successful, perhaps we’ll be treated to more Walking Dead movies.

Narratively, there does seem to be another story ripe for a theatrical adaptation. Namely one starring Danai Gurira’s Michonne, who was also written off of The Walking Dead under mysterious circumstances. She specifically left the communities in order to find Rick, so perhaps they could get a sequel about this reunion. Only time will tell.

The Walking Dead continues to grow on the small screen, as fans patiently wait for the Rick Grimes movie to begin filming. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.

Sometimes unexpected shutdowns and delays can actually be a good thing for a movie, like when Tom Cruise’s injury on Mission: Impossible – Fallout helped director Christopher McQuarrie fine-tune the script. It sounds bad at first but, in some situations, it can be a blessing in disguise. With this, it sounds like the same could be true for The Walking Dead movie, according to director Greg Nicotero.

The Walking Dead has been a powerhouse television show, to say the least. With 10 seasons, an eleventh on the way, and several spin-offs, it makes sense that the franchise would branch out to the silver screen. However, due to the shutdown, fans have wondered about the current status of the production. Well, recently, director Greg Nicotero spoke about it. Here’s what he said:

Greg Nicotero's comments to Syfy are a testament to the upside of delays, and there are plenty of other examples. Recently, Kevin Smith revealed he’s been using the downtime to finish the Mallrats 2 script and, back when J.J. Abrams worked on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he used Harrison Ford’s injury to rewrite scenes he wasn’t happy with. Hopefully, for The Walking Dead, movie this will result in a stronger script.

Aside from The Walking Dead, Greg Nicotero believes there’s likely going to be a huge boom in scripts and screenplays during this shutdown, with writers scribbling away at their ideas. He added:

Scott M. Gimple, being one of the many busy screenwriters during this time, commented earlier this year that he intends for The Walking Dead movie to heighten the stakes for Rick Grimes. Everything Rick Grimes went through on the television show will feel like preparation for what he's going to face in the movie. However, Gimple also said that he envisions the movie to be similar to Logan  -- a kind of swan song for Rick Grimes that works entirely on its own.

As of right now not much is known about the big-screen adaptations of The Walking Dead, though it's been said that seeds have already been planted for what's to occur.. As always, we’ll keep you updated as the story progresses.

Whenever The Walking Dead's Season 10 finale was confirmed to be delayed due to Hollywood's shutdown, it wasn't just a blow to the AMC drama's fanbase, but also to those working on the show that couldn't wait to bring it to the world. One of those people is Walking Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero, who directed the finale, titled "A Certain Doom." For those curious about some of those details, CinemaBlend spoke with Nicotero about the finale's delay.

In an interview promoting the upcoming Blu-ray/DVD release of his Shudder horror anthology Creepshow (out on May 19), Greg Nicotero also talked about one of his biggest prides and joys, The Walking Dead. I asked about what parts of the finale hadn't been finished whenever the production got shut down, and here's what the special effects mastermind told me:

I have to imagine quite a few of the crew members making noises that sounded like haggard walkers when they heard the news, considering how close to the end everyone had gotten. Not to mention the fact that Episode 15 had left the story off on such a wild cliffhanger, with Beta unleashing a walker herd on the hospital where most of the Alexandrians were hiding out. It was a sequence that almost felt scripted as a finale ending, so the fact that it wasn't makes the wait all the more daunting.

In any case, it's definitely encouraging to hear that The Walking Dead's finale wasn't facing any unforeseen problems during the finale's post-production phase. Any season finale directed by Greg Nicotero is likely going to have a larger-than-average sequence or two, as well as some gnarly effects work, so it's a testament to everyone's professionalism that they were approaching completion when everything turned upside-down in the outside world.

Here, Greg Nicotero speaks highly of the Season 10 finale while sharing his personal frustrations over having to temporarily shelve it.

Obviously, one of The Walking Dead's big bosses wasn't about to start unloading finale spoilers willy nilly, no matter how fantastic he thinks the episode is. So we'll have to wait for the episode to air to see how all the survivors fare and how Maggie will return, as well as how Kevin Carroll's Virgil re-factors into the story. (Getting to see more Princess is a plus, too.)

Since The Walking Dead hasn't ever dealt with a pre-finale hiatus like this, I wondered if AMC might find a way to build up the Season 10 conclusion to be as much of a standalone event as possible. But when I asked Greg Nicotero if he thought the finale might get super-sized with additional footage, he didn't sound overwhelmingly optimistic about it.

If there is indeed enough extra footage to tack onto the Season 10 finale, one would hope that AMC would find a way to deliver it, even if it meant taking on some more post-production duties whenever The Walking Dead crew is allowed to work again. That'd probably depend on when such a return would happen, and when the network would want to air the episode.

While waiting for AMC to return to the walker-verse, fans of zany horror (and Greg Nicotero, of course) should definitely check out the first season of Creepshow when it hits DVD and Blu-ray on May 19. With adaptations of stories penned by Stephen King, Joe Lansdale, Birdbox's Josh Malerman and more, the Creepshow set comes stocked with extra features, including audio commentaries and interviews with the talented and varied cast and crew members, which include stars like Giancarlo Esposito, David Arquette, Walking Dead star Cailey Fleming, Tricia Helfer and others. Fans will also be able to enjoy behind-the-scenes footage, a featurette devoted to easter eggs, a comic art booklet, photo galleries and more.

For now, it's unclear when The Walking Dead's Season 10 finale will make it to our eye sockets on AMC, but the network is giving Creepshow an official cable run to promote the home entertainment release. Fans can catch the double-episode airings on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. starting on May 4.

In its first nine seasons, The Walking Dead has paid tribute to such classic horror franchises as George Romero's Dead flicks, Alien, Shaun of the Dead and many more. Executive producer Greg Nicotero, who also oversees the show's righteous special effects, was back behind the camera for The Walking Dead's Season 10 premiere, and he's hinting that fans might just notice a Jaws easter egg hidden in the episode.

While The Walking Dead likely isn't going to introduce Richard Dreyfuss' Hooper as one of the world's remaining survivors, the Season 10 premiere will indeed pay winking tribute to Steven Spielberg's seminal blockbuster. Here's how Greg Nicotero explained it.

I suppose it's possible that Greg Nicotero could have recently fallen head over heels in love with the quality-eschewing Sharknado series or Deep Blue Sea, but the Hollywood icon is definitely talking about Jaws there. Plus, the easter egg that's being referring to is one that viewers likely would have glanced right over had Nicotero not provided a heads up about what to look for. Except, I guess, for the viewers who are always looking for random teeth in Walking Dead scenes, since those folks probably exist.

From the photos released for the Walking Dead Season 10 premiere, we know that some scenes will take place near the water. Maybe that tooth is hiding out in the image below somewhere.

I can't imagine that this is purely a coincidence, but Greg Nicotero and his KNB EFX team have actually spent a good deal of time and effort in 2019 repairing and restoring the last casting from the original Bruce the shark molds from Jaws. The iconic prop that they're restoring used to be on display in Universal Studios, but had gone into disrepair after being moved to a junkyard. Could that be where the shark tooth came from?

It sounds like there will be more to come from the Season 10 opener beyond just the Jaws reference, but Greg Nicotero isn't putting all his cards on the table just yet. In speaking with EW, the director revealed that there might not be a ton of tributes happening early on, given the attention paid to Alpha and her Whisperers. In his words:

If you're like me, you might be more interested in learning about the Whisperers' backstories than seeing what kinds of horror references can be worked into their costumes. While the comic villains were allowed to remain frightening and intimidating without a lot of details surfacing, it's harder to keep things vague with live-action characters, so Season 10 will indeed be pulling back some of the layers to reveal more about Alpha and Beta before the Whisperers came to exist.

Of course, the Whisperers will also provide some present-day chaos to all the protagonists as Season 10 moves forward. But the good guys haven't just been sitting around mourning their losses. As it went in the comic book, the various communities are putting together an army of sorts, and it looks like Aaron will be heading things up.

Greg Nicotero also spoke about that militarized element:

Viewers will get a chance to see just how well Michonne, Daryl, Aaron and the rest will fare when The Walking Dead Season 10 kicks off on AMC on Sunday, October 6, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Sometimes tells me Michonne will survive long enough to decide she needs to leave.

Greg Nicotero has given fans their first look at Creepshow, and it may give you nightmares. Just remember: you were warned. Prepare yourself for something seriously eerie and check out the haunting image below:

Someone looks angry and possessed and more than a little dead! Imagine looking out of your window to find this looking back. It may make The Walking Dead’s Whisperers take a step back to reassess. Fans were enthusiastic in their response to Greg Nicotero’s post. Among them was The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan. So, you are not the only one looking forward to this series.

The frightening image did come with a more comforting caption. Greg Nicotero shared that the first episode of Creepshow has been completed. Hence, Creepshow is creeping ever closer to being completed entirely.

Greg Nicotero’s Creepshow series was announced last year. Nicotero has experience with conjuring upsetting imagery as The Walking Dead’s special effects makeup maestro. He is executive producing Creepshow and directing the first episode, which will be an episodic anthology. In other words, new episode = different story.

Creepshow has been taking considerable strides forward recently. Earlier this month, it was announced that the upcoming series would adapt a story written by Bird Box author, Josh Malerman. That episode will be entitled “House of the Head.” As its title hints, it involved a disturbing story comprised of a murder, a haunting, and a dollhouse. Creepy stuff!

Fresh off the buzz of the Netflix adaptation, the decision to adapt one of the Bird Box author’s short stories was likely an easy one. Josh Malerman is not the only author contributing source material to Creepshow’s first season. Horror legend Stephen King will also have one of his short stories brought to the screen.

“Survivor Type” is said to be one of Stephen King’s most disturbing works. So, expect to feel at least one shudder go up your spine while watching. If you feel up to watching it at all.

Considering the movie poster for the original Creepshow film, the image Greg Nicotero shared could be a callback of sorts. Like the picture he posted on Instagram, it also featured a skeleton with fabric draped around its head. Coincidence?

The excitement for the series is certainly building. To Creepshow’s credit, it is using special effects makeup to make its scares happen. With so much overemphasis being placed on CGI, it will be neat for genre fans to see something tangible.

This nightmarish first look gives fans a hint at what they should expect. One episode is done, and there will be more to go. Hopefully, for Creepshow followers, this will not be the last look at the new series before it premieres.

A release date has not yet been set for Creepshow. When it does premiere, it will do so on Shudder. It is currently expected to bow during 2019, so stay tuned. Lots of shows await viewers in the meantime.

Who is the best villain on The Walking Dead? Comic book fans used to debate The Governor vs. Negan, but a new name entered the race late in the game with Alpha. Season 9 is returning from midseason slumber this Sunday, February 10, as The Whisperers storyline kicks into high gear. Alpha is the leader of the skin-wearing group, and she'll be played by Samantha Morton.

Greg Nicotero is not only The Walking Dead's special effects guru, he also directs episodes, including this week's midseason premiere. He recently singled out Alpha in a way that pissed off Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Here's the story from Nicotero:

Don't we know it. Negan is no longer the whistling guy who brutally Lucilled Glenn and Abraham in that horrible lineup. He was most recently a broken man, or seemed that way until he -- SPOILER ALERT if you haven't watched the midseason finale yet -- managed to exit his unlocked cell in Alexandria. (What would Rick think of that? Or Maggie? I hate that we may never know.) And if Jeffrey Dean Morgan feels usurped on the main stage, at least he still has Supernatural fans excited for his return to that show.

Season 9 will show us what happened to Negan after his prison walkout, but it sounds like he might be on the B-team, with the A-storyline following The Whisperers. The midseason finale showed the Whisperer's drawing blood, taking the life of a popular character. The second half of the season is focusing more on the new big bads, and it may be tough to watch. Here's more on that from Greg Nicotero to Atlanta Magazine:

AMC's midseason premiere Whisperer's trailer definitely set a creepy tone. Samantha Morton is a fantastic actress (let me make a quick plug for Hulu's Harlots, 'cause she is a BOSS in that) so it's no surprise that Greg Nicotero also said he was blown away by her performance as Alpha.

Also, in the first half of the new season, characters kept mentioning a fair coming up. That rang alarm bells in the minds of Walking Dead comic book readers, and we should see some version of that storyline play out on TV. The Whisperers are definitely connected.

Some fans may have already seen the Episode 9 midseason premiere, since AMC made it available a week early. For the rest of us, "Adaptation" will air this Sunday, with the communities banding together after their recent loss. Also, according to the synopsis:

AMC is also airing a bonus scene from Episode 8 right before the new episode, with that content starting at 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, before the new episode starts at 9 p.m. The Walking Dead isn't the must-see show it used to be, but it still attracts millions of fans, and it's fun to all watch (and sometimes tweet) together as a community. Here's what else we can watch together, or separately, during midseason 2019.

Fans of The Walking Dead are preparing for a season of significant change when the show's ninth season finally begins to unravel. The loss of the series' lead, among other developments, marks a sea of change for the veteran zombie drama. Instead of trying to rush things, Greg Nicotero is sharing that the show will be taking its time to flesh out its characters and make room for the important stuff. Nicotero said:

The Walking Dead's executive producer, director, and makeup supervisor shared the revealing Season 9 tidbit with UPROXX, and that is not all he told them. Greg Nicotero also compared the show's ninth installment to Season 2. While acknowledging the backlash that season incurred, Nicotero also pointed out that it was a pivotal one that saw the audience fall in love with Daryl and Carol. The reason being, because the show took the time.

The nuanced approach that Greg Nicotero is teasing for Season 9 hints at a return to form for the series, at a time where it will be undergoing at least one radical alteration. One particularly stands to alter how it has always been. It is a move that fans are likely to appreciate. The Walking Dead will be taking the time to give them the conversations they care about, while they can still be heard. Sadly, fans will not be able to lean in and hear from certain characters for much longer.

While Daryl will be sticking around, conversations between he and Rick, where they talk about their feelings are not long for the series. It is a bittersweet angle that could offer an intense emotional draw for fans wanting to savor the moment. Remembering the way things were before they turn to face what is and will be. The interaction between the characters has been one of the show's appealing factors for fans.

While the drama will be taking the chance to slow down and smell the roses, it will also be gearing up for a lot of nail-biting developments, including a death. Find out how it all unfolds when The Walking Dead Season 9 premieres Sunday, October 7 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The zombie drama joins a slew of other series set to return and premiere this fall.

Greg Nicotero recently revealed that he directed Andrew Lincoln's final scenes on the drama, while sharing he is still in a bit of denial over Lincoln having left it. In many ways, what Nicotero has teased sounds like the season Walking Dead fans have been waiting to see.

Fans of The Walking Dead are not the only ones still processing the upcoming painful departure of series lead Andrew Lincoln. Greg Nicotero, who wears many hats on the series, including executive producer, director, and makeup supervisor, is still not over Lincoln's exit. Nicotero opened up about his feelings surrounding the star's departure, saying:

Unfortunately for fans of Andrew Lincoln and his Walking Dead character, that is unlikely to happen. The actor took many by surprise when he announced his exit from the series, which he has led ever since it premiered nearly a decade ago in 2010. It is one of the most high-profile exits by a lead from a series that will still be pushing on in their absence, and speculation has not let up regarding how Lincoln's Rick will exit the story.

Nevertheless, it is still possible to be in denial over it happening. Greg Nicotero shared more about Andrew Lincoln's exit in his interview with Business Insider. Spending as long as Nicotero has with Lincoln, it makes sense for him to still be sifting through the latter's absence from the popular series. Nicotero provided some prime insight into their bond and how they collaborated on episodes of the show. Taking fans behind-the-scenes of his and Lincoln's work together, Nicotero said:

Given how close they have become during his run on the series, it only makes sense that Greg Nicotero would be the one to direct Andrew Lincoln's final scenes on the show, and he will. Talk about a bittersweet feeling. Nicotero did not hold back from offering a little tease of what fans can expect from Lincoln's inevitably emotional finale. Without going into great detail as to avoid spoiling it, Nicotero spoke highly of the episode calling it "magnificent."

As well-chronicled as Andrew Lincoln's exit from The Walking Dead has been, it is fantastic to hear from someone as integral to the production as Greg Nicotero is to the zombie series. It provides a different angle and insight into the collaborative relationship Lincoln has had with the show. The exit of a mainstay can often herald a considerable adjustment for fans, as well as those behind the camera, as they deal with a reset of sorts.

How Rick will exit is the question on the top of many fans' minds, and Greg Nicotero did not give anything away as to how exactly that will unravel. He did mention that Rick's journey throughout the episode will touch on the "the highlights" that have punctuated the series' run so far. Whether all of that will culminate in a montage of sorts that has Rick watching his life flash before his eyes, only time will tell.

Find out how Rick's exit story transpires when The Walking Dead returns this fall, along with a ton of other shows. Season 9 will premiere Sunday, October 7 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

While a look back at 1997's Spawn might certainly send chills down spines, it won't for the reasons intended by creator of the Image Comics character, Todd McFarlane. The poorly-received superhero flick was incredibly cheesy, especially for a story about a character who has just come back from a stint in hell. Now under Blumhouse Productions with McFarlane as writer and director of the upcoming Spawn reboot, however, the new movie should conjure up some truly entertaining frights. That's especially true now that special effects legend and Walking Dead special effects makeup artist Greg Nicotero and his KNB Group have signed on to work on the antihero film. McFarlane shared his enthusiasm to have Nicotero on the project with him, saying,

With Jamie Foxx as the titular antihero and Jeremy Renner as "Twitch" Williams in the live-action comic book adaptation, Todd McFarlane's announcement to ComicBook adds some more excitement to the film. Greg Nicotero not only worked on the original Spawn film in the '90s, but he has generated quite the name for himself in special effects as he has worked hard on zombie makeup in other comic genre ventures such as The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, Preacher and Sin City among his long and impressive resume. McFarlane may not have a big budget, but implementing practical effects with the help of a pro like Nicotero and his team seems like a natural decision for the director to make for this project.

Todd McFarlane and Greg Nicotero have been friends since the original Spawn movie and are now collaborating again, over 20 years later. However, McFarlane is not going for the same approach that the filmmakers took when creating the first live-action Spawn film. The team took about six weeks to come up with the concept art, which is going to implement much more horror elements and likely veer toward R-rated material. With plans underway for the visual look of the upcoming Spawn, McFarlane hopes to begin production on the project in early 2019, but the film has yet to get a release date.

Many will recall the 1982 Creepshow anthology film from George A. Romero and Stephen King, which starred a bevy of screen favorites. Well, prepare to be creeped out all over again! The horror favorite Creepshow is making its comeback, this time in television form. And, it is doing so in the hands of a guy who is familiar with bringing horror to life, The Walking Dead's Greg Nicotero. So, where can you watch it? Here is what you need to know.

The Creepshow television series will premiere on AMC's premium streaming service, Shudder. The Walking Dead's special effects makeup maestro Greg Nicotero will helm the series. Nicotero will wear many hats for the show, taking on directing duties, as well as executive producing the series. He will also advise on the series' "creative elements." The setup for the show is intriguing. Like the film, it will be an anthology series with each episode telling an "original fun and scary" story.

The Amazon horror series Lore took the same approach with its episodes. For Creepshow, a new director will tackle each episode. Greg Nicotero is set to direct the series opener. His company, KNB EFX Group Inc., will also handle the creature and makeup effects for Creepshow. News of the series using makeup-based special effects will undoubtedly be met with enthusiasm. With more and more emphasis on CGI, the makeup world has seen a lot of competition from computer-generated effects.

Disney's live-action film adaptation of Beauty and The Beast used CGI to conjure the Beast, instead of good old-fashioned makeup effects, which, unlike CGI, tends to withstand the test of time much better. Creepshow will not face that issue thanks to its decision to embrace the use of special effects' more tangible approach. With two sequel films and a spin-off comic book to its name, the Creepshow franchise has a lot of fans who will undoubtedly welcome the television show.

There are lots of things left to anticipate, along with the idea of the show itself. There are the episodic story reveals, the list of directors and talent the series will eventually lineup. Given Greg Nicotero's connection to The Walking Dead, fans are likely hoping that some of the smash hit's cast members could make an appearance, as well as some of the stars from the Creepshow movies. While this is a reboot of sorts, bringing Creepshow from the movie screen to the television screen has the potential to be scary good stuff.

Creepshow does not have a specified release date yet, but it is set to premiere on Shudder in 2019. For more about the streaming platform check out its official site. For other new television content set to arrive soon, check out CinemaBlend's guide to TV's summer premieres.

Superhero properties are continuing to be the most profitable genre in filmmaking, so there's plenty of comic book adaptations coming to the silver screen. While most of them are in behemoth properties like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or DC Extended Universe, there are certain franchises operating on their own. Perhaps the most obvious is Todd McFarlane's developing Spawn movie, based off the dark character he created. McFarlane will be directing and writing the project, and has enlisted talent like Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner to lead the cast. And now it looks like a major Walking Dead contributor is joining the project: makeup supervisor and director Greg Nicotero.

It's been an exciting few weeks for the Spawn movie, and things are finally moving forward as a team of cast and crew are being assembled. Now Greg Nicotero has reportedly joined the upcoming supernatural horror flick to handle the makeup. Walking Dead fans know what fantastic work he's capable of, so this is an exciting indication of what might come from Todd McFarlane's upcoming flick.

Reports of Greg Nictero's involvement in Spawn come from Omega Underground, and have yet to be officially confirmed by Todd McFarlane or anyone from the team. But it does stand to reason. After all, Nicotero actually worked on the original 1997 movie, working on animatronic creature effects and special makeup effects. Now that he's a giant success from The Walking Dead, having Nicotero's potential involvement in Spawn may help drum up more excitement for the developing movie.

Greg Nicotero has made his long career in Hollywood, creating some of the most grisly and bloody scenes in film history. Starting with George Romano's Day of the Dead, he's been involved in every bloody project from Tarantino's Kill Bill and The Hateful Eight, to horror classics like the Scream franchise. The Walking Dead is currently his bread and butter, as Nicotero is constantly challenged to make new and exciting zombies. He's also a director on the show, having helmed 26 episodes to date.

Scott MacFarland's upcoming Spawn movie is going to be in stark juxtaposition with the 1997 film. It seems the titular character will function largely as a mysterious shadow, with the signature body and costume not necessarily coming into play. MacFarland has teased he's shooting for an R-Rated supernatural horror film, so don't expect heroes in tights duking it out across epic landscapes. Spawn's trying something new, and it might be exactly what the comic book genre needs. We'll just have to see if Fox gets ahead of the horror/superhero subgenre with The New Mutants.

CinemBlend will update you on all things Spawn. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's Season 8 finale, titled "Wrath."

For all that the latest The Walking Dead finale wrapped up its various plot threads, such as the All Out war's ending and Dwight's exile, several future storylines were only hinted at, from Negan's recovery process to Maggie's newly enraged sense of vengeance. Perhaps the most intriguing tease was that super-massive herd of walkers, which Rick noted was larger than any they'd seen before. Comic fans immediately latched onto the idea that this was the show's first true reference to the source material's big villains, The Whisperers, but here's what executive producer and finale director Greg Nicotero said about that.

For those who are unfamiliar, The Whisperers are the deadly group that showed up following the comic book's post-War time jump. Their main gimmick involves its members wearing walker skins as if they are full-bodied costumes, making them blend into big herds like this, and allowing them to travel largely undetected. "Wrath" really only directly referred to the giant zombie pack during that one scene, and while we're taking Greg Nicotero's words to EW at face value, isn't it too peculiar a thing for that herd to show up merely as a vague warning to Rick's crew that in-fighting is bad? Especially considering every giant walker swarm has stood for that same thing in the past, from the Alexandria breach to Negan and Gabriel's gut-covered escape.

Not that we'd expect Greg Nicotero to up and spoil any major Season 9 villain points already, but we can't help but feel like there's something more to this. If the TV show does indeed use The Whisperers in live-action -- which isn't guaranteed, but also isn't unlikely -- then it's hard to believe that they would co-exist in a world with this giant herd without being a part of it. Those are just bad odds.

No longer the showrunner for The Walking Dead, Scott Gimple will still oversee the entire franchise, and he had a similar and much less wordy explanation for what the herd meant. But somehow, his answer to EW still comes across as slightly more optimistic for fans hoping to see those wild villains. When asked if the herd was intentionally hinting at the Whisperers, Gimple said this:

Interestingly, The Walking Dead has featured several moments in past episodes that have seemingly nodded to the Whisperers' existence. From that one Savior bringing up heads on spikes to Ezekiel to those walkers with the skin ripped from their bodies, the foundation for Whisperer havoc has been lightly spread about, and the finale may have also thrown in another visual clue or two. Remember those posts in the field where the War's final "battle" took place?

Surely, those could just be normal fence stakes where the fence itself had long been removed. Or, those posts could refer to how the Comic Whisperers mark their territory to keep outsiders and intruders away. The fact that there are other fences and things in the field-filled setting makes this guess a bit more flimsy, but it feels absolutely intentional for those particular lone posts above to be seen in the exact same shot with the walker herd in the background. I'd bet a closet full of snappy walker-skin blazers that we'll see the Whisperers in the first half of Season 9.

The Walking Dead Season 8 is no more, and Season 9 won't be around until the fall season. So in the meantime, check out Fear the Walking Dead Season 4 and its new characters on AMC every Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. ET. And then head to our midseason premiere schedule and our summer premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows on the way.

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There are few shows in TV history that have gained quite as much popularity as The Walking Dead. AMC's apocalyptic drama is currently in its whopping eighth season on the air, and is showing no signs of slowing down. Spinoff Fear The Walking Dead has been slowly gaining more fans during its first trio of season on the air, and Season 4 will arrive fresh off the heels of TWD's finale. Fear will also get another boost because of the upcoming crossover event, so could more spinoffs come in the near future? Walking Dead director and makeup supervisor Greg Nicotero recently revealed a spinoff he'd like to see next on AMC, specifically what the climate should be.

Greg Nicotero is ready to take the zombie apocalypse to a more arctic setting, and see how both the undead and the living manage to survive in such harsh weather conditions. It's something that has never really been explored in either The Walking Dead or Fear, as they've been set in Atlanta and California respectively.

Aside from wanting to take the zombie apocalypse to a colder climate, it seems that Greg Nicotero is also hoping that a future spinoff would be set outside of the US. When asked if the snowy spinoff would also be set in the country, Nicotero said:

This concept, as well as the weather, might be enough of a reason for AMC to develop another Walking Dead spinoff. Seeing how another country or different society deals with the apocalypse would be fascinating, and is no doubt why Fear got its earliest viewership.

Fear The Walking Dead has had some international plot lines in a way that the original show never could. We see as water becomes a valuable resource across the border, and also watched as Native Americans attempted to reclaim their land from early settlers. But having a show completely set outside of the US could help expand the franchise in an really exciting way.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC, and Fear The Walking Dead will return April 15th. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch. Plus our Amazon list and superhero premiere list to ensure you don't miss a single episode.

As The Walking Dead is seemingly hitting the home stretch in the All Out War between Rick and Negan's groups, Fear the Walking Dead is shaping up to be a season unlike those we've seen before. And we're not just talking about Lennie James' Morgan hopping over for crossover purposes, and nor are we talking about the trio of new lead characters being introduced. For Fear the Walking Dead's press conference during WonderCon 2018, which CinemaBlend attended, the cast and crew came together to talk about Season 4, and it turns out we can expect some big differences involving both the new villains and how the walkers will be used. Let's see what everybody had to say.

A Different Kind Of Villain

In Season 3, Fear the Walking Dead truly excelled at setting up the core dynamic between the familiar characters and the new additions, since the lines between protagonists and antagonists were at their most tenuous and malleable, with Troy Otto straddling those lines accordingly. But it appears that Season 4 will again flip the script when it comes to the overarching's big bads, which sound like they'll be slightly more straightforward with their villainy than the Ranchers were. Here's how showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss put it during the press conference:

The best horror villains are usually the ones that can't really be defeated simply by shooting them or blowing them up. That usually implies something supernatural is happening, but it obviously wouldn't be the case with Fear the Walking Dead's most sentient threats. So what can we expect?

Having seen the first couple of Season 4 episodes, I may or may not be familiar with what Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss are talking about, not that I'll squeal. Let's just say that some fans might be reminded of another villainous group within this universe, but such comparisons are pretty quickly squashed. So get ready a brand new world full of unfamiliar dangers.

Head to the next page to see what else will be different in Season 4.

Walkers Will Play A Bigger Role

Given the nature of this franchise, there will always be fans complaining that zombies aren't used enough within The Walking Dead shows. That's largely by design with Fear, since its storyline started off just as the outbreak was starting to wreak havoc. Season 4 will kick off after a time jump of some kind, though, meaning we'll be catching up with the Clark family in the midst of a world far more overrun by the dead than it was previously. Here's how executive producer and special effects guru Greg Nicotero explained it during the WonderCon press conference.

Greg Nicotero claimed he definitely wanted to get behind the camera to direct a Fear the Walking Dead episode or two, because he was just so impressed with the scripts and where the new stories are heading. Unfortunately, all of his duties on The Walking Dead proper (which include prep work for Season 9), and he wasn't able to make the jump with Lennie James. Still, if he's the one talking about the walkers being more front and center in Season 4, it definitely means something, since it's his team that's making those walkers look as ghastly and ghoulish as they do.

The Walking Dead shows have utilized zombies in interesting ways over the years, though without reverting back to the "giant herd" tactic, it's a challenge to make the shambling skin-sacks appear truly frightening at this point. But all it takes is one good idea to start, and the pulse-pounding terror will hopefully follow.

Fans don't have too long to wait to see how different things will be, as Fear the Walking Dead will make its refreshing debut on AMC on Sunday, April 15, at 10:00 p.m. ET, coming right after the Season 8 finale of The Walking Dead. Check out the first big trailer, and hear what Lennie James had to say about possibly seeing his past return in Fear. And anyone needing to plan out TV viewing for the near future only needs to hop over to our midseason premiere schedule.

The Walking Dead has served up just about every kind of zombie imaginable at this point, including everything from that well zombie in Season 2 to the mossy zombie in Season 6 to the gloriously disgusting swamp zombies of Season 8. As it turns out, the latest episode featured a kind of reanimated corpse that hasn't turned up on the show before: totally nude. The nude zombie was easy to miss in the episode, but special effects makeup guru/The Walking Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero posted a photo to give a good look:

There we have it! The Walking Dead's first all-nude zombie in all his/her/its glory! All things considered, I'd say that this has to be one of the most disgustingly impressive zombies ever to be created for either The Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead. Greg Nicotero's Instagram post proves that the makeup crew managed to go head-to-toe with rotten flesh, and it's pretty much impossible to tell if this person started out as a man or a woman. This zombie also looks so rotten that a stiff breeze could slough half of its dead flesh off, but that didn't happen during its moment in the latest episode.

If you didn't catch this walker in the episode, don't feel bad. It was staggering around the background of a scene that had Dwight and Simon looking for Negan, who had been run off the road by Rick. The point of the scene was the tension between the two men, and there wasn't even much focus on the nude zombie on the peripheral. If you knew the nude zombie was on the way -- and Greg Nicotero did tease earlier this year that such a zombie was on the way -- you might have known to keep an eye out for a corpse wandering around without any clothes. Otherwise, you might not have had any reason to look. This definitely wasn't the Walking Dead nude scene that most of us are probably going to remember, and it wasn't Norman Reedus in the buff this time.

The background appearance means that The Walking Dead can add "nude zombie" to the list of wild walkers that have appeared on the show. According to Greg Nicotero, there's only one kind of zombie that the show really can't do, and the makeup team may be able to pull off just about anything else they can imagine. It's not like there are a lot of rules about zombie biology, and they do have to find new ways to shock, awe, and gross out audiences, which can't be easy in the latter half of the eighth season.

Tune in to AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET for new episodes of The Walking Dead. Fear the Walking Dead will be back soon, and you can catch both the Season 8 finale of The Walking Dead and the Season 4 premiere of the spinoff in theaters next month. For more TV options, take a look at our midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule.

It's almost hard to believe, but AMC's The Walking Dead is already in the midst of its whopping eighth season on the air. The zombie apocalypse is showing no signs of slowing down, with its spinoff Fear The Walking Dead gaining fans and a crossover event occurring in the show's fourth season. As such, everyone involved in the flagship series is no doubt working on ways to keep the show fresh and unique. This is a difficult task, as fans have watched just about every atrocity imaginable on the beloved series. Yet director and visual effects supervisor Greg Nicotero is still thinking of gross new zombies, and we'll soon break new ground as the first nude zombie pops up. Nicotero teased this, saying:

It's the zombie apocalypse, and pants are not necessarily on the menu. Considering how long its been since the world itself ended, it makes sense that a nude walker would eventually pop up during the show's long run.

While fans have been watching The Walking Dead for eight seasons, that timeline doesn't match up with how much time has passed on the show. As far as we can tell, it's been about two years since the outbreak began. Despite Carl getting older far faster than he should have, the rest of the world (including the undead) has aged a bit more appropriately. With some walkers having roamed around for two years straight, it would stand to reason that their clothes would eventually distress enough to leave them completely nude.

While Greg Nicotero teased the first nude walker in his conversation with EW, he didn't reveal which sex the walking corpse would be. Personally, I think it might have something to do with the Scavenger leader Jadis. Despite betraying Rick two separate times, the monosyllabic group of survivors are still out there. Jadis, played by Pollyanna McIntosh, is a character that enjoys spending time in the nude. The group of garbage people live by their own rules, and Jadis' include plenty of nudity and sex. So could the nude walker end up being the community leader?

It would certainly be a cool plot twist. Despite popping in and out of the narrative, the Scavengers have yet to truly become an integral part of The Walking Dead. And since they've left Rick to die on two separate occasions, fans are eager to see them get what's coming. The conflict between Rick and Negan will likely end before Season 8 is over, and therefore The Scavengers need to be taken care of as well. Perhaps Michonne or Rick will be able to put a zombified Jadis out of her misery, ending the character once and for all.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens when The Walking Dead returns from hiatus. New episodes will begin February 25th, 2018. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch, and our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the chop last year.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been an unconventional one. Chock full of gun fights and action, TWD is moving at a breakneck pace that is sometimes difficult to keep up with. Because Rick is launching an assault on Negan and The Saviors, there are a variety of locations and skirmishes being shown at any given time; the action has been so much that we've barely even seen inside the walls of Alexandria. It turns out that the people behind the series are aware of how different Season 8 has been. In fact, producer Greg Nicotero recently revealed that the current season will feel like the reverse of the past ones. He said,

Now this is interesting. While The Walking Dead's new season is currently making waves for playing with time and settings, it also appears that things will settle down after the winter hiatus. But what could that mean for the show's narrative?

Greg Nicotero's comments to Comic Book tease that the current pace will likely slow down in the second half of the season. This is sure to excite some fans, who find the first episodes of Season 8 a bit exhausting as it is currently. There have been multiple timelines and assaults explored in the first two episodes of the season, so it's been a bit hard to follow everyone's favorite apocalyptic series. And with such an emphasis on shootouts and action in the war against Negan, character development has been lacking a bit.

After the explosive Season 7 finale, fans are eager to see how the survivors are navigating the current war-- which hasn't been void of casualties. Furthermore, Rosita has been utterly nonexistent, as she's currently in Rosita recovering from a bullet wound. Of course, actress Christian Serratos had also just had a baby at the time, with her wound providing a reason to keep Ro Ro out of sight and out of mind for a few episodes.

But if the pace slows down in the back half of TWD Season 8, does that mean the war will be over in the midseason finale? This would make All Out War drastically shorter than its run in The Walking Dead comics. Although considering how massive the budget likely is (as well as the pressure of keeping Jeffrey Dean Morgan on the show), it does make sense for them to slow things down after a while.

Alas, we'll just have to wait and see how The Walking Dead shakes out this season. Season 8 is currently airing Sundays on AMC. Check out our fall premiere list to plan your next binge watch.

The past few weeks have been an exciting time for avid TV fans. Fall premieres have ended the long hiatus between nwe seasons, allowing fans to return to their favorite weekly adventures on the small screen. But there are a few shows that are sitting on their season premiere, including AMC's massively popular series The Walking Dead. The apocalyptic drama is just weeks away from its whopping eighth season, and some fans may be falling off or losing interest in Rick Grimes' battle for survival. But it looks like the folks behind TWD are cognizant of this possibility, and are attempting to change things up in Season 8. Producer/director Greg Nicotero recently spoke to this, teasing how visually different Season 8 will be than its predecessors.

Well, this should be a relief for Walking Dead fans who are worried about the show losing its magic as it gets deeper into its long tenure. Greg Nictero's comments at NY Comic-Con (courtesy of Polygon) proves that the crew is paying attention to what its done in the past, and teases how the series can change in order to keep things fresh.

It should be interesting to see how The Walking Dead manages to craft new visuals for the series. Perhaps these evocative frames will be used to differentiate the various communities currently at play. It would be awesome if the camera work in The Sanctuary was different from the visuals used in Alexandria, or the Hilltop, and so on. Since there are six groups in the mix at this point of TWD, it would also help the viewers distinguish the various locations.

And perhaps the most obvious (and mysterious) way that The Walking Dead is changing things is up is the potential time jump being set up. The Season 8 trailer that debuted at San Diego Comic-Con this summer dropped a bomb on the fandom. The final shot of the trailer saw an older and more grey Rick Grimes wake up, all but confirming that a jump in time would be happening this season.

It's currently unclear how this device will function within The Walking Dead. Will there be Lost-esque flash forwards? Or will TWD pull a Better Call Saul and give glimpses into the future in premiere and finale episodes? We'll just have to wait and see.

The Walking Dead will return for Season 8 October 22nd on AMC. In the meantime, check out our fall premiere list to plan your next binge watch.

The Walking Dead is unlike anything else on TV as it takes viewers to the desolate landscape of the zombie apocalypse. While credit must be given to the actors and writers who craft the stories of Rick and Co., we can be sure that The Walking Dead wouldn't be what it is today without the special effects and makeup expertise of executive producer Greg Nicotero, who has been on board from the very beginning. Now, Nicotero has revealed just how his years of success on The Walking Dead have changed how he designs effects, saying this:

Prior to landing the Walking Dead job, Greg Nicotero did most of his work on the big screen with movies like The Haunting and Unbreakable. Designing makeup and effects for movies meant that he could go big and bold without necessarily considering the impact on characters and ongoing stories, as the plot would be wrapped up in two or so hours. With The Walking Dead, the scenes that require the most effects and makeup are often some of the ones that most impact the mindsets of the lead characters in lasting ways. Nicotero's comments to ComingSoon.net indicate that he has learned how to add deeper story meaning to his special effects.

The lesson has clearly been valuable, as The Walking Dead is set to hit its big one hundred episode milestone when it returns for Season 8. In fact, the Season 8 premiere will be Episode 100, and star Andrew Lincoln has already revealed that they'll be "starting a full-scale war" to celebrate the milestone. Season 8 will have the folks from Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom fighting the forces of Negan and the Saviors, and if the first battle (complete with a snarling tiger) was a taste of what's to come, Greg Nicotero and the special effects team will be pretty busy.

We can bet that Nicotero will keep the creative juices flowing when Season 8 kicks off in the fall. Whether he's coming up with new kinds of zombies or crafting dummy heads after A-list celebrities, Nicotero always has something fantastical in store. Considering how huge The Walking Dead is for AMC, we can probably be pretty confident that he'll be delivering fresh horrors in the zombie apocalypse for the indefinite future.

The Walking Dead will return to AMC this fall. If you're dying for a peek ahead, our breakdown of what we know so far about Season 8 should whet your appetite. Be sure to check out our summer TV premiere schedule to discover what you can watch to pass the time before the Season 8 premiere.

The seventh season of The Walking Dead ended with a bang, and now the countdown has officially begun for the all out war that will take place during Season 8. Rick Grimes and Negan are going to need soldiers to fight this war, and that means new recruits will likely be drafted as the tension starts to mount. With that in mind, what are the odds of seeing more celebrity cameos among the core ensemble of the hit zombie series? According to executive producer Greg Nicotero, The Walking Dead doesn't want to include cameos to maintain the realism of the show. He elaborated:

Despite the fact that celebrities regularly ask for cameos on The Walking Dead, Greg Nicotero seems to have put his foot down, and made it clear in his comments to Fandom that he's not interested in compromising the reality of the show for some star power. It's not hard to understand why he feels that way. One of the most enticing aspects of a zombie survival situation is a sense of relatability and immersion. It's a "what would you do in this situation?" scenario. If a Hollywood A-lister shows up, the situation begins actually to feel like a TV show.

That doesn't necessarily mean that The Walking Dead has completely eschewed the concept of cameos throughout the course of its seven-year run on AMC. The series is just incredibly selective about when and where it chooses to include more familiar faces. Greg Nicotero has cameoed on the show as a walker before, and the last few seasons have featured guest stints by recognizable performers like John Carroll Lynch and Alicia Witt.

Having said that, there's a quantifiable difference between a familiar character actor having a guest stint on The Walking Dead, and a full-blown celebrity cameo. If someone like Dave Chappelle (who reportedly wants to cameo on the zombie series) showed up out of the blue, it would ultimately take audiences out of the experience. As Nicotero explained it: the only way he would ever even consider making a concession would be if the public couldn't even tell who the celebrity was under all of his or her zombie makeup.

The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season this fall. Before that happens, however, we still have plenty of zombie-less television left to debut this summer.

Over on The Walking Dead, the survivors have been forced to ward off zombie-related deaths in some magnificently crazy ways, from avoiding the well-walker to blowing a bunch of them to smithereens. In the video below, taken from the filming of Season 7's "Swear," executive producer and effects extraordinaire Greg Nicotero and actress Alanna Masterson show us that not all safety measures need to be big and boisterous, and sometimes winning in the apocalypse just comes down to kicking the shit out of a walker's face.

Did anyone else feel a small layer of aggression get peeled back by watching that video? I tried playing it over and over again, to see if all of those layers would get stripped away to the point where Bobby McFerrin started playing on my computer, but it didn't work. Though I'm not mad about it.

For the episode in question, one of Season 7's many standalone installments, Tara and Heath faced some big walker problems on a bridge (that Heath later disappeared from). A few walkers made surprise arrivals from within the big pile of sand and toppled vehicles that was so clearly hiding walkers, and that's when Tara had to use her boot-plowing skills to survive the day. Perhaps she was involved in a small production of Stomp in her youth.

That's a pretty sweet way to get through a work day, too. The Walking Dead cast goes through some tumultuous times on the set, don't get me wrong, but there is a fine time to be had in wailing on a bleeding prosthetic and laughing with one of your bosses when his face gets splattered with some of the faux carnage. I can think of a former employer or two whose head I'd like to demolish like that. Not now or anything, but perhaps after society collapses...

And here's what that moment looked like during the actual episode, but with a similar lack of intense music.

That bit that actually aired was totally missing like 17 kicks. She should have been able to get all of them buried in that walker's face before pulling her gun out. The situation may not have called for it, but the situation didn't exactly call for Daryl to beat Fat Joseph's head in, or for Arat to shoot Olivia. Tara's boots were made for walkin'...dead faces, and that's just what they should do.

The Walking Dead will finally return to AMC and to hungry viewers on Sunday, February 12, for the back half of Season 7. To see what else is coming to the small screen in the future, head to our midseason premiere schedule.

Massive spoilers ahead for the premiere of The Walking Dead.

We asked for it, and we certainly got it. This Sunday was the premiere of The Walking Dead's seventh season, and with it came the answer to the cliffhanger we'd been discussing since back in April. And while the knowledge of who Negan killed with Lucille is satisfying, many folks weren't too happy with how they found out. The images of Abraham and Glenn being so brutally murdered has been the thing of nightmares for fans, with many wondering if those disturbing scenes were absolutely necessary. Luckily for us, Walking Dead director, producer, and make up supervisor Greg Nicotero has opened up regarding why it had to be so brutal.

Greg Nicotero recently sat in on a conference call (via IGN) to talk about The Walking Dead's seventh season, including the horrifying premiere episode. In regard to Negan's violent murder of Abraham and Glenn, Nicotero said the following:

It's graphic and it's horrible. We wanted to push it a little bit. When we shot the Season 5 premiere, we had everybody at the trough and we went down the line and you saw these guys being murdered and drained of blood. That was purely a mechanism just to show how bad the people in Terminus really were. With Negan, you only have to see that once or twice to know this guy means business. The haunting remnants of that episode are very very similar to how I felt when I read the comic book and I experienced that sense of loss and the futility of trying to step in. Rick Grimes is powerless to stop this and that's something we've never seen on the show. I think the violence and brutality are a part of the helplessness. Seeing our hero completely crushed in front of us is more disturbing than the actual violence for me.

The man does have a point. Let's break down exactly what Mr. Nicotero is referencing in his statement.

For one, you can't deny the effectiveness of Sunday's premiere episode. Although we had six months to emotionally prepare ourselves for the loss of a major character, The Walking Dead still succeeded in shocking and devastating the audience. While part of this reaction is because three characters were ripped away from the group in different ways, much of the knee jerk response is because of the disturbing imagery. But let's get real: if we didn't see Negan killing them with our own eyes, it would be a major let down and would probably cause people to stop watching altogether. It couldn't be an off screen death- we needed to see the violence.

And although the premiere was hard to get through, its not like Season 7 will have more of this type of violence. Greg Nicotero points out that you only have to see this type of imagery once to forever equate it to Negan. So while some people have been campaigning for The Walking Dead to receive a new TV rating, last Sunday's visuals likely won't return to the series anytime soon. We can just wait and see what sort of messed up stuff is coming next.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC.

Tonight is finally the night. After six long months of waiting and wondering, AMC's apocalyptic drama The Walking Dead is finally returning to the small screen. Since The Season 6 finale back in April, fans have been debating which one (or two) of our survivors perished at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan. And while this type of speculation has become a fun game within the community, the fans were originally pretty pissed at the now infamous cliffhanger. In fact, some people wrote off the show entirely and others signed a petition attempting to force AMC to reveal who died. Now The Walking Dead's producer, director, and makeup supervisor Greg Nicotero has addressed the controversy surrounding last season's finale.

Greg Nicotero recently sat down with the folks at Comicbook.com, where he was asked about the Negan cliffhanger. Now that it's been six months, he said the following:

Touche, Mr. Nicotero. Greg Nicotero made quite a few points in this statement, let's break down exactly what he's saying.

Right off the bat, Greg Nicotero addresses the "shock" of the controversial cliffhanger in the episode "Last Day on Earth". I'm not sure shock is really the word for what happened. After all, hardcore fans of The Walking Dead weren't actually surprised by Negan taking Lucille to a character's head. Negan's appearance was a long time coming, plus we knew how Negan's introduction went down in the comics. Everybody loves a good cliffhanger, but they really only work if they're actually shocking and surprising.

However, Greg Nicotero is right about just how rabid The Walking Dead's fanbase is. While fans may have been annoyed with how the finale went down, it's not going to stop most of them from tuning in tonight for Season 7's premiere. In fact, the six excruciating months have made tonight a particularly exciting premiere; it's basically all that we've thought about all weekend. The finale did it's job; its continued to keep us talking about the show and will likely result in impressive numbers for tonight's premiere.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC tonight, October 23rd.

Possible spoilers for The Walking Dead are below.

Through the introduction of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, AMC's The Walking Dead is bringing to life one of the biggest comic book moments of the past decade, but not even Lucille can stop some fans from lamenting the continued exclusion of another major factor from the Walking Dead comics: Rick's missing hand. Things may change on that front in Season 7, though, as hinted at in a recently screened clip from the episode that involves Negan, Rick, and the latter's trusty hatchet. Here's how executive producer and episode director Greg Nictoero teased it.

As if anyone from the Walking Dead creative team would come right out and say that something fans have been anticipating for years is finally going to happen. Still, it technically wasn't all that long ago that discussions about Rick losing his hand were geared towards "not happening" resolutions, so Greg Nicotero going so tease-heavy in this respect in his interview with ComicBook.com is exciting, even if it all ends up being for naught.

If you'll recall, last week gave the world the "Right Hand Man" clip from the Walking Dead season premiere, and in it, Negan makes references to having a "right hand man," and how it's a whole lot of work to go on without one. And then he takes Rick's hatchet and drags Rick into the RV. Negan obviously isn't going to straight up murder Rick, but it's absolutely possible that he will take a five-fingered souvenir for his time, which would further demonstrate just how defeated and non-competitive Rick will be in the early days of Negan's reign.

Actor Andrew Lincoln is all about losing the hand, too, so maybe he finally talked showrunner Scott Gimple into making it happen. Plus, delaying the limb loss for this long would be justified if it's Negan that does the chopping. Helps to solidify the take-no-shit persona he displays so proudly.

Of course, this is The Walking Dead, so Rick and Negan's RV situation could end without any bloodshed whatsoever, only to be followed by another character getting a hand chopped off. It's quite normal for the show's characters to meet fates that other characters got in the comics, although this one is a little too tethered to Rick specifically. Maybe everybody loses a hand, Oprah-style.

The Walking Dead is finally coming back to kick ass and take names (and possibly hands) when Season 7 debuts on AMC on Sunday, October 23, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see when everything else is coming to your TVs in the coming months, check out our fall TV schedule. You can check out the full clip from the season premiere on the next page.

The cliffhanger of The Walking Dead's Season 6 finale has had fans everywhere speculating about who got the face full of baseball bat ever since the finale aired back in April. Negan wasn't too particular himself about who he killed to make an example for Rick and Co., so it's been hard to lay odds on which character has bitten the dust. The Season 7 premiere isn't until October, but executive producer Greg Nicotero may have just dropped a major spoiler about what's happening next. Here's what he had to say about what the big cliffhanger meant for fans:

Dun dun dun! At first glance, it doesn't look like Greg Nicotero did much more than drop yet another tease about Season 7 to get us excited about the premiere in October. We've had no shortage of Walking Dead folks touting the cliffhanger and why it was exactly what we needed at the end of Season 6; Nicotero would have been one of many.

Upon a closer look, however, we can see that Greg Nicotero may have slipped up when he mentioned "deaths" plural. Plenty of us have been assuming that we'll only see one big death in the Season 7 premiere. Most of the candidates are major enough that their demise would suffice to show that the Saviors are not to be messed with. If Nicotero's mention of "deaths" is a clue of what we should expect when Season 7 premieres, we may be in for way more heartache than we anticipated.

It would be a pretty epic twist if The Walking Dead kills off more than one of the good guys when the seventh season kicks off, and it could take the show in a direction that even comic fans might not have been able to predict. After all the build up throughout Season 6, few of us probably thought that Rick and Co. would escape their first encounter with Negan scot-free. Somebody was always likely to die; somebodies dying could change the game in a huge way.

If there's more than one death early in Season 7, I'd put my money on Maggie and her unborn child or Maggie and Glenn. I could definitely see Maggie or Glenn reacting to the other being beaten to death by trying to go after Negan, and that would be no contest. Besides, Maggie already looked like she was on death's door thanks to her ill-advised zombie apocalypse pregnancy.

Of course, Greg Nicotero's mention of "deaths" in his chat with EW could be no more than a transcription error in the interview or an innocent turn of phrase that happened to be plural. We'll have to wait until the Season 7 premiere to see for sure if more than one of the good guys is whacked off to the great zombie apocalypse sanctuary in the sky.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. ET. Check out our breakdown of what we know so far about Season 7, and don't forget to take a look at our fall TV premiere schedule.

The Season 6 finale of The Walking Dead will undoubtedly go down as one of the most infamous episodes of the series thanks to the crazy cliffhanger. Fans have been alternately raging and speculating ever since the finale aired back in April about just who got the face full of Negan's baseball bat in the final moments. According to executive producer Greg Nicotero, however, the episode was about something bigger than the big death cliffhanger. Nicotero had this to say about the purpose of the Walking Dead Season 6 finale:

The Season 6 finale was a supersized episode that ran for twenty minutes longer than the average Walking Dead installment, and some of the action seemed to drag to fill the minutes until the big, bloody confrontation that plenty of us were expecting. The big connective thread that kept the plot moving was how Rick was slowly losing his handle on the situation as he was outmaneuvered at every turn by Negan and the Saviors.

Andrew Lincoln was phenomenal in showing Rick's growing desperation, and Rick's total shuddering breakdown when Negan started speechifying was one of the highlights of the hour. Rick will reportedly be thoroughly broken in Season 7; the break very clearly began in the Season 6 finale. He went from being positive that he and his crew could get the possibly-miscarrying Maggie to Hilltop to kneeling in a clearing while most of his favorite people faced possible execution. Even if Rick doesn't lose his son or his lady love or his brother-in-arms, he's lost face in front of all of them. It'll come as no surprise if the survivors see Rick's failures as a pretty good reason to start living by Negan's rules.

Personally, I'm on the record as not loving that Season 6 ended on a cliffhanger after all the other Season 6 cliffhangers, so it's nice to know that Greg Nicotero and Co. had a broader framework to the episode than just killing time until Negan got around to swinging his bat. Nicotero's reveal to EW about what the finale meant for Rick's character moving forward is definitely reason to look forward to what's coming next.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. ET. Check out our breakdown of what we know so far about The Walking Dead for a peek ahead, and don't forget to take a look at our fall TV premiere schedule.

The Walking Dead has given fans reasons to worry about many different characters over the past six seasons, but never so many at once, for such a long period of time. An incredible amount of anticipation is going into the Season 7 premiere's hour-long run-time, and episode director Greg Nicotero makes it clear that many, many more grueling hours went into putting the whole shebang together.

It sounds awful to have to get pushed to one's emotional breaking point not just once or twice, but several times over the course of a day, for many different days in a row. Fun just doesn't come in the form of "pretending that someone very close to you has just gotten his or her head smooshed in by a maniac," nor in the form of "having your head fake-smooshed in."

And we can play it down by saying they're just acting, but that involves being put in a very disturbing headspace, all while being incredibly uncomfortable physically. And while it's highly doubtful that the effects master Greg Nicotero and his crew filmed a chunky and blood-soaked death for every single character in Negan's lineup, as was rumored, they almost definitely filmed several different versions. So on top of however many takes it took to get the actual final scene completed, everyone had to go through everything all over again to do the alternate versions, which will almost certainly get leaked out in some way. That's a lot of time feeling tortured and sweaty and bloody and gross. Nicotero's words to ComicBook.com do make me wonder just how long the big death sequence will be.

I don't know that I'm the kind of person who could direct that kind of scene, having to tell Jeffrey Dean Morgan that he doesn't look callous enough on his second attempt at driving Lucille through Glenn's skull. (Or not Glenn, but probably Glenn.) I could probably yell at Carl, though, so long as I thought of him as only Carl.

The Walking Dead will be making some changes and heading in different directions when it returns to AMC for Season 7 this October. To find out everything we've learned so far, check out our Season 7 guide. And stay tuned for the rest of the week, as Comic-Con will definitely give us a lot of Walking Dead-related news to chew on. For everything else hitting the small screen this fall, head over to our TV premiere schedule.

There are few shows on television which are as widely watched and discussed as AMC's apocalyptic drama The Walking Dead. But after six season of bites, fights, and gripes, you'd think we'd much pretty much seen all the world of zombies had to offer. But you'd be wrong. The Walking Dead is showing no signs of slowing down, so the folks behind the madness are going to have to explore new plots and styles in order to keep the show fresh.

The Walking Dead's own executive producer/ makeup supervisor/ director/ grand poobah Greg Nicotero recently sat down with the folks over at Entertainment Weekly, where he teased how Season 7 of everyone's favorite zombie show will be different than its predecessors.

Sign me up, I'm in. Season 7 certainly does look like it will explore new dynamics for the series, which might be just the way to keep the series fresh and exciting for long-time viewers.

Season 6 of The Walking Dead introduced a ton of new concepts. Perhaps the most important of these, which also happened to be the hard lesson Rick learned in the controversial season finale, was that the residents of Alexandria are just not alone anymore. The community had somehow survived without getting their hands dirty up until Rick arrived, but there are other thriving and sometimes insidious communities just outside their gates. We've already been introduced to both The Hilltop and The Saviors, with The Kingdom surely being introduced next season.

With four separate groups thriving in a relatively small area, there's tons of characters and dynamics to explore in Season 7 of The Walking Dead. Rather than simply focusing on Rick and his group, Greg Nicotero seems to hint that the other groups will be fleshed out in the upcoming season. This seems like a great way to expand upon the world of the show, while also giving us something we haven't seen quite yet.

Personally, I'm dying to get into the dynamics of The Saviors. We know there's tons of them, Negan is the leader, and they seem fairly ruthless, but we haven't really explored how their community works. Where do they live? What is the hierarchy of power? We know that Dwight wanted to kick rocks and abandon it at one point, with his face being burned presumably as a punishment. I'm sure The Walking Dead will do a capsule episode focusing solely on the Saviors, much to the chagrin of audiences who want to check in on how Maggie is feeling and which woodland creature Daryl is currently eating with his bare hands.

The Walking Dead returns to TV this fall on AMC.

There's nothing quite like working with someone that you really get along with. In Hollywood, these symbiotic relationships can lead to collaboration partners, such as Tim Burton's cast of regulars (Johnny Depp, Helena Bohman Carter, the late Christopher Lee) and David O. Russell's relationships with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. This is presumably what has happened after years of working on The Walking Dead with actor Norman Reedus and producer/writer Greg Nicotero. But instead of simply doing more television projects together, they're stepping into a totally different world with their next collaboration.

EW is reporting that Norman Reedus and Greg Nicotero are opening a restaurant together in Senoia, Georgia. Senoia is where a ton of The Walking Dead is filmed each year, and now it appears they're taking their hold on the town a step further by becoming respected business owners. The restaurant is called Nic and Norman's and features a logo that includes Daryl Dixon's signature crossbow bolts.

Nic and Norman's can be found on 20 Main Street in Senoia, Georgia. While the menu hasn't been revealed, they're planning on opening the restaurant before the end of summer. The walls will reportedly feature art by Greg Nicotero and Norman Reedus.

Norman Reedus recently took to social media to get people psyched about the new eatery. His t-shirt features the logo for the venture. Check it out.

Locals have also noticed how Nic and Norman's seems to be just shy of opening their doors to the general population. One person recently used twitter so share the exterior of the new business.

So what does Nic and Norman's mean for The Walking Dead? For one thing, it appears that Daryl Dixon is probably safe from Negan's wrath in the opening moments of Season 7. It seems very unlikely that Norman Reedus would invest in a local business if he's no longer going to be shooting in the Senoia area. Sure, he could be a silent partner, but that doesn't seem like Reedus' style.

Whoever was killed in the controversial finale was likely informed early enough so they could make arrangements for themselves, including possibly selling or moving out of whatever residence the actor is currently occupying. Emily Kinney, who played Beth for many season of The Walking Dead, recounted how hard the moving process was for her after she was killed off, so I doubt they'd make someone else go through that when they could otherwise plan their life during the show's hiatus.

Do you think Daryl's safe now? Are you ready to eat at Nic and Norman's? Sound off in the comments below.

It’s been nearly a week since The Walking Dead left us on one of the biggest TV cliffhangers of all time. The episode frustrated a lot of fans, not just because of the cliffhanger, but because the cliffhanger distracted everyone from talking about some of the great moments in the finale, including the long-awaited introduction to Negan. As it turns out, even director Greg Nicotero’s parents are pretty mad about the way things went down. In fact, they briefly stopped speaking to Nicotero. Here’s the story from the horse’s mouth:

Greg Nicotero was recently speaking to EW about the cliffhanger ending when he dropped this amusing story. While pretty much everyone near and dear to The Walking Dead has revealed they will not be divulging any secrets regarding who bit the dust thanks to Negan’s weapon of choice, Lucille, you would think Nicotero might make an exception for his parents. Obviously, the AMC drama is keeping the tightest of tight lids on who is getting killed off. Although if they can manage to make it to next fall without that information leaking, more power to them. 

So far, what happens with Negan has been extremely muddled. Before the finale, various cast members were talking about how gut-wrenching and horrifying the end of Season 6 was. While the episode did end up being very tense, because we didn’t actually get to see who died, it’s not exactly the sort of thing that would keep you up at night, as Andrew Lincoln alleged. This would lead you to believe that someone knows what is going to happen, even if the fans don’t. 

While Robert Kirkman—who wrote the comics—has said the show left clues, showrunner Scott Gimple has contradicted him and said there’s no way to figure it out. Since The Walking Dead is expected to start filming Season 7 next month, the likelihood is the creative team knows what is going to happen. Whether or not the cast has been told at this juncture is still up in the air, although Andrew Lincoln has said they made a pact not to talk about it, and he’s sticking to that. 

One thing’s for certain: the creative team is very aware of the potential for spoilers to leak, and is keeping their mouths clammed shut when it comes to family and friends asking questions. Even if those questions come from their mothers. 

The Walking Dead won’t return for Season 7 until the fall. However, you can catch new episodes of Fear The Walking Dead starting this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. 

The Walking Dead spoilers are below.

So far, Morgan’s arrival in Alexandria hasn’t really been at the center of a lot of people’s celebrations on The Walking Dead. He doesn’t see eye to eye with Rick on how to handle the Saviors, just as he didn’t see eye to eye with Carol on what to do with those pesky Wolves. And no one else is jumping on his “life is precious” bandwagon. So it made sense that he was spending some time alone in “Not Tomorrow Yet,” and he was seen busy on some slightly mysterious project. It turns out that, as you may have guessed, Morgan is building Alexandria’s very first jail.

Even without seeing the half-finished wall or the bars, it wouldn’t take more than a few blind guesses to land on what Morgan could be constructing. He’s certainly not going to be slapping together a lemonade stand for Enid to run, and the community hasn’t posted up any flyers about a soap box car race, so he wouldn’t be doing that. So yeah, a jail cell is the most reasonable option, and director/effects wizard Greg Nicotero explained to Yahoo why that is.

Morgan is one of the only characters who (at least vocally) asserts his belief that not every threat needs to be killed, and that some form of rehab is possible with anyone. And he is the walking testimonial, having gone through that exact experience with John Carroll Lynch’s Eastman during the flashback episode. Sure, not everyone is going to be in the same state of mind that Morgan was in, and not everyone will be able to get over the hurdle of reversing immoral decisions. But Morgan will never know if he doesn’t try. And step one is creating a place for that rehabilitation to occur.

His (and everyone else on The Walking Dead’s) track record for holding onto prisoners is not that great. Morgan sort of tried to trap those two first Wolves after he knocked them out, but it didn’t hold. His hostage situation inside the house wasn’t very successful either, considering the guy knocked him out and got away. And then we all know that it took Jesus hardly any time at all to escape. So here’s hoping Morgan’s design and craftsman skills are stronger than some of his others.

Now that there’s going to be a jail cell in Alexandria, the obvious question now is: who’s going to get put in there first? Will it be one of the Saviors or even Negan himself? Or, more likely, will Morgan piss Carol off in such a way that she handles it by keeping him locked up with absolutely no chance of a cookie dessert?

The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC. You can check back for more coverage throughout the week, or you can try your hand at trivia below...

Warning: spoilers ahead for Episode 12 of Season 6 of The Walking Dead.

There aren’t too many characters left on The Walking Dead who have been around since Season 1, and most of those who have survived have a lot of blood on their hands to explain how they managed to do so. Considering that Rick, Daryl, Carol, and even Carl have killed people, the reminder in the most recent episode that Glenn had never taken a human life was genuinely surprising, and it made Glenn’s first kill an unexpectedly emotional moment in an action-packed hour of television. According to director Greg Nicotero, he went the extra mile to set up actor Steven Yeun for his big scene.

Creating beautiful fake prosthetic heads for actors to stab off-screen isn’t exactly the most effective way to pull great performances, but in adding an extra layer to the dummy by giving it a wedding ring and presenting it as a real human in a possible relationship, that really drew out the right results. Nicotero revealed his trick in his chat with Entertainment Weekly and explained how Yeun brought such nuance to a scene that could have felt out of place.

Of course, Steven Yeun has more than proven himself a great actor over his six seasons of the show, so he definitely already had the chops to change Glenn from the hopeful man who had never taken a life to the killer willing to do what is necessary to protect his family. Even if it meant taking out someone who might have had a family of his or her own. The realistic dummy giving something for Yeun to focus his energy on really elevated the moment.

On the one hand, we have to feel a bit bad for Glenn that he had to break his streak of choosing not to kill. There aren’t many characters who can still see glasses as half full, and Glenn may lose that ability after this episode. On the other hand, however, his odds of surviving the season may have just increased. On The Walking Dead, the moral compasses tend to be the ones to die the most gruesome deaths, so Glenn getting some human blood on his hands may be enough to spare him from being killed off for a little while longer. There’s been enough foreshadowing in the second half of Season 6 to guess that Negan is going to be taking a good guy out of the game, but perhaps Glenn’s odds of surviving just increased.

Unfortunately for Glenn, Maggie’s odds of surviving have seriously dropped. To see just who will fall victim to Negan in Season 6, be sure to tune in to AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET to catch new episodes of The Walking Dead.

Read on at your own risk! There are major spoilers ahead for the midseason premiere of Season 6 of The Walking Dead.

It’s a general rule that no character is ever 100% safe from being killed off on The Walking Dead, and so getting attached to any one in particular is heartbreak waiting to happen. Surprisingly, some of the most graphic deaths in the six seasons so far have been those of children. According to executive producer Greg Nicotero, there’s a very good reason why The Walking Dead doesn’t seem to care all that much about killing off kids.

Greg Nicotero’s explanation to The Hollywood Reporter makes a lot of sense as far as why kids seem to bite the dust about as often as zombies bite nameless extras. Zombies aren’t exactly particular about who it is they chomp, so the show really does need to be equal opportunity about who lives and who dies.

Nicotero happened to direct the midseason premiere, so it’s no surprise that he’d be asked to explain the show’s policy about killing kids. One child was eaten by zombies when he had a mid-horde meltdown, and another child was skewered with a katana when he aimed a gun at Rick. Carl survived the encounter, but not without losing an eye to a stray shot. The only named kids to survive the episode unscathed were Enid and baby Judith.

Of course, the midseason premiere was not the first bloodbath for the youngsters of The Walking Dead. The show has come a long way since the zombified Sophia shambling out of a barn was the biggest shocker of the series. In fact, some of the most creative kills of the series have been to kids. Who can forget the zombie oozing up from the mud to kill Meghan or Lizzie murdering Mika?

Despite Nicotero’s explanation about sticking with spirit of the source material, The Walking Dead has had a history of picking and choosing which gruesome elements of the comics to adapt for television with regard to kids. In the comics, Sophia survived long after her television counterpart died, and baby Judith died in Lori’s arms not too longer after her birth. The show toying with the book canon has allowed even readers to be surprised from time to time, even when an episode plays out a scenario nearly identical to one from the comics.

All in all, it’s not always easy to watch kids die on The Walking Dead, but natural selection at work is one of the most realistic aspects of the show. Sam and Ron certainly weren’t the fittest to survive in the world of the zombie apocalypse, but I’m glad that we’ll get to see Carl adapt and live on at least a little bit longer on The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

The Walking Dead has grossed us out with nasty zombies on numerous occasions. It is, after all, expected in a show full of zombies. However, this week’s episode went above and beyond in the way of seriously gross walkers, thanks to Maggie and Aaron’s trip into the sewer…

In an effort to leave Alexandria and seek out Glenn, Maggie — chaperoned by Aaron — made her way through the tunnels underground. When she and Aaron were attempting to loosen a ladder that seemed to be jammed, they made the mistake of freeing a couple of really disgusting zombies that were lodged in the muck. It looks like time, darkness and dampness really took their toll on these guys…

Worse than that was the sight of Maggie sinking her hands into the skeletal chest of one of them, tearing into the thing with her fingers as it tried to sink its exposed teeth into her. Gross. Gross. Gross.

There are only a couple of times when The Walking Dead’s zombies really turned my stomach. One was the well walker…

And the other was the walker that got its head pushed through the fence. Surely there have been a few other truly disturbing zombie gore moments — the fire hose scene comes to mind, and Noah’s death, come to think of it… and Dale’s… — , but the well walker and the fence walker are the two really gory zombie scenes in The Walking Dead that stand out in my mind as being particularly heinous. And I think last night’s walkers topped them both.

Beyond the stomach-turning reaction to the sight of the sewer walkers that attacked Maggie and Aaron, last night’s episode left me wondering if there’s any point in a walker’s decomposition that they’re too rotted to attack. The walkers pictured above were barely more than skeletons, and yet they were not only mobile, but they had enough strength to pull themselves out of the muck and attack. It’s more — albeit unnecessary — proof that walkers are built to last, even if there’s little left of them.

Points to Greg Nicotero and the incredible special effects team at The Walking Dead for once again managing to take the walker gore to the next level. We knew the gore game was going to raised in Season 6, and it looks like they’re really delivering on that.

In related news to last night’s episode (spoiler alert!), is Glenn dead or not? The Walking Dead didn’t answer that question any more definitively last night than they did in the two episodes before it. But there was a major reveal about another character, which you can read about here.

Are we still doing this whole spoilers thing? If so, they’re below.

For almost two full weeks now, The Walking Dead fans have been running mental circles around anything and everything that could have possibly happened to Glenn in Episode 3. Is he dead? Is he alive? Is he somehow both and/or neither? We still don’t know exactly what happened, but we know for sure that one popular fan theory has bullet holes in it and isn’t correct at all.

You probably heard the one theory that Nicholas had run out of bullets during that sequence in the alley around the dumpster, but it turns out that’s not the case at all. Here’s how executive producer and “Thank You” director Greg Nicotero put it.

So there you have it, viewers. Technically, it could have all still have been a figment of Nicholas’ imagination as part of one of his panic attacks, but even in a fantasy sequence of this kind, we can confirm he still had at least one more bullet in his gun. He counted!

Nicotero, who cameoed in the episode as the zombie who first started yanking guts during the post-suicide, also told THR that viewers will definitely be revisiting the dumpster scene in the future, so we’ll probably get to see it from a different angle that shows us exactly what happened after the walkers descended on Nicholas and Glenn. Showrunner Scott Gimple previously stated we’d get a full resolution on Glenn’s situation before the midseason finale, so we’ll undoubtedly see characters accepting Glenn’s disappearance and/or death before we actually get to see his possibly final few minutes.

I’d love to hear what Nicotero had to say about Steven Yeun’s name being removed from the credit sequence on the last episode. Or if Yeun’s haircut actually has anything to do with Glenn’s life or death. Also, what he has to say about every other fan theory out there. I just want to know, dammit!

We assumedly won’t be seeing any flashback episodes centered on Morgan or anyone else, so hopefully it’s full speed ahead in showing audiences what’s happening with the massive zombie herd as Glenn’s fate hovers in the back of our minds. Find out what happens when The Walking Dead airs on Sunday night on AMC.

As The Walking Dead gets ready for Season 6, the creators are not looking to sit back and coast their way through it. The series is continually finding new and interesting ways to make their zombies grotesque and terrifying. This season, they’ve added a new tool to their arsenal. With computers, they can digitally modify their zombies in order to do things that makeup can’t.

Greg Nictotero, executive producer and head of special effects for The Walking Dead, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the new things in store for the zombies of Season 6.

Wrightson is a classic comic artist, best known for Swamp Thing and the Creepshow comics. It doesn’t take a long look at his work to see where The Walking Dead gets their creative influence.

We’ve seen some images of the Season 6 zombies, which certainly reinforces Nicotero’s words. These guys are utterly disgusting. Nicotero goes on to discuss the continuing evolution of the walkers on the series. Every year, they have worked to make the walkers better and better. This is something we’ve cataloged ourselves, and Nicotero discusses some key improvements, as well as what they work hard not to do.

While Ray Harryhausen’s classic special effects were amazing in their day, they also had a unique look that nobody would accuse The Walking Dead of using. Harryhausen was fantastical, while the walkers' realism is what makes them so damn disconcerting.

We’re looking forward to all the disgusting new walkers when The Walking Dead returns for Season 6 on AMC on October 11.

Ask anyone who the best actor on The Walking Dead is, and they’ll likely mention Andrew Lincoln or Melissa McBride, or someone else who is part of survivor squad. But this is a show mostly filled with zombies, and viewers rarely give ample credit to the actors beneath that makeup. You might not know that the zombie casting process involves actors going through a special zombie school that executive producer and effects mastermind Greg Nicotero cooked up. Now there’s a GPA I could impress people with.

Nicotero explained his process with The Frame, breaking down how he gets the actors perfect for the small screen.

He goes on to say that he wants actors that can bring the characterizations of Boris Karloff in the Frankenstein monster’s makeup, but not just someone walking around with their arms held out stiffly in front of them. A lot of the show’s walkers will appear in the background, but showrunner Scott Gimple and the episodes’ directors know when to add heft to particular members of the undead population.

There’s a weird cognitive dissonance involved in feeling pity for a being that knows little else beyond “gotta get my gnaw on,” and Nicotero is always interested in bringing that emotional side of the zombies out through the actor’s performances. (I was particularly bothered by the one zombie that caused all that ruckus in the midseason premiere.)

Nicotero’s focus on keeping zombies realistic through instruction is admirable, as is the show’s dedication to practical effects in a world of CGI. (No, please, no more flashbacks of I Am Legend’s computer-generated baddies!) I wonder how many times a year he does the zombie school, as it seems like a labor-intensive activity, but you gotta love that he wants to be the guy showing people how to shamble and groan properly. Now they just need to open up a zombie makeup school on the side, with other scholarly zombie-related material coming later. Zombie University is just over the blood-soaked horizon, people.

Check out a video of one of the classes in action below.

Who do I have to talk to in order to get this as a public school elective? While I’m writing letters to school boards, don’t forget to tune into the next brutal episode of The Walking Dead on Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET.

Fans of The Walking Dead, both on and off of this website, have spent months theorizing and hypothesizing where the series is heading in Season 5 and beyond. Tonight’s excellent season premiere sent the Internet into a tizzy several times, and one of the biggest questions people are asking involves the possible inclusion of the Walking Dead comics’ biggest and baddest villain, Negan. He appears to show up in a flashback scene at the end of the episode, but I’m sorry to have to break it to you guys: that wasn’t Negan.

That’s what creator Robert Kirkman has to say about it, as you can read below.

In the pre-credits final scene, as Gareth is telling his mother that everything is okay, a hulking figure steps from the shadows and into more shadows and says, “No, it’s not,” as he gets violent with his club. Now, because the scene is shot in almost complete darkness, you can’t really see what the guy looks like; only that he has slicked-back black hair and muscles. Both of those qualifiers certainly describe Negan, but this guy also had face tattoos.

You might remember seeing the guy earlier in the episode who leaped hysterically out of a Terminus boxcar, only to immediately get mauled by zombies. He was one of the people who took over Terminus for that temporary period before the cattle became the butchers. It’s the same guy in the flashback, as also confirmed by effects master Greg Nicotero on Talking Dead following the premiere.

We do that know Negan is coming, as showrunner Scott Gimple is planning on bringing the vicious murderer to audiences at some point during the series' run. But as far as we know, they’re still in the process of finding an actor for the role. The Strain star Kevin Durand recently shared that The Walking Dead reached out to him to see if he’d be interested in taking the part. Not being familiar with the comic, he didn’t seem particularly enthused about it, though he would be excellent in the role.

Personally, if Gimple and Kirkman are as confident in this season’s effectiveness as they have been post-Season 4, I see no reason to rush into Negan’s storyline midseason. Like the Governor, he’s a character whose fear factor is directly tied to his lack of morals, but Negan is an absolute maniac, whereas the Governor knew his manners. He'll be a superb character to root against, but let’s get all the way through the Terminus storyline before heading to that epic story arc. And anyway, Morgan!

Everyone is pretty excited for the return of AMC's The Walking Dead. It's one of the few new series last season that really captured audiences and instantly converted them into mindless, uh, zombies, obediently tuning in each week to see what blood, guts, and gore-thirsty creatures Sheriff Rick Grimes and the rest of the survivors had to deal with, or decapitate and disembowel, this time.

My favorite part of the series, being the huge dork that I am, is the monster makeup. The production value and expertise thrown behind the zombie design was phenomenal; no surprise when you hire a legend like Greg Nicotero to take care of it for you. Nicotero has worked with some of the biggest names in film (Tarantino, Raimi, Rodriguez) and his TV resume ain't too shabby either (Deadwood, Masters of Horror, The Pacific).

His work on The Walking Dead so far is nothing short of magical...and with a bigger season and bigger budget, I can only imagine what he might have in store for us. This new featurette focuses on Nicotero as he discusses the story behind the amazing first image that they released for Season 2. As he says, he fell in love with an extra's eyes and felt she would make the perfect zombie, and you can't really argue with the result.

But never mind me, watch Nicotero tell you about his work in his own words.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC for Season 2 this October. It stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori), Jon Bernthal (Shane), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale), and Laurie Holden (Andrea). Based on the graphic novel by Robert Kirkman, Frank Darabont serves as exec-producer, writer, and director for the TV adaptation.