Big changes are afoot in the upcoming ninth season of The Walking Dead, with both Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes and Lauren Cohan’s Maggie Rhee set to make their exit, and new showrunner Angela Kang taking over from the outgoing Scott M. Gimple.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Kang has described the upcoming season as “the start of a new chapter of the show”, which will pick up events following an as-yet-unspecified time jump.
“We’ll explore what happened as man made objects and structures break down,” says Kang. “Infrastructure like roads and bridges are changing and crumbling. And we’ll also explore what happens as resources are getting low. There’s a fun Western vibe that has emerged. We are going into a period where a lot of the things that we’ve seen in previous seasons have broken down, so they’ve got these horses and carriages that are being drawn around instead of cars. Things are lit with oil lamps. People are using different kinds of weaponry. There’s a real grittiness to it that I think will be fun and fresh for the viewers.”
SEE ALSO: Jon Bernthal to return as Shane in The Walking Dead season 9
Here’s a first look photo showcasing that “Western vibe”, featuring Danai Gurira’s Michonne on horseback:
The Walking Dead will return to AMC in October.
Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
