Once again, I am placed in the position of writing an article for the roughly five of you who are sticking with The Walking Dead into its ninth season, well beyond the point at which its particular brand of ‘sad and damaged people avoiding zombies’ hit the last dregs of oil in the tank. After reports circulated that Andrew Lincoln would be exiting the franchise, the question on everyone’s lips has been simple: what the hell is the show going to do now?
Well, there might be some energy in the show yet. It has a brand new showrunner, Angela King, who confirmed a long-held bit of speculation at a panel on Wednesday: there will indeed be a time-jump into the future this season.
“We’re playing with time in the season, so we get to jump forward in the story,” Kang said during a ‘Kick-Ass Women of AMC’ panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This follows the comics the series is based on, which had about a two-year time jump at roughly this point.
No specific details about this time jump were shared, but Kang did mention that the season would feature a “really fresh look and feel” and would start with “some pretty fun stuff.” Considering the tone of previous seasons, it can be safely assumed this ‘fun stuff’ will involve characters being butchered, tortured and eaten.
During the panel, Kang also highlighted her desire to focus on the show’s female characters:
We’re going to see some really great stories with the women in our show, particularly. And I think for people who are really invested in Michonne [Danai Gurira], Maggie or Carol [Melissa McBride], there’s such great material for them. For people who are looking for that specifically, they will see some really incredible work from our women,
If you’ve given up on The Walking Dead, perhaps this new season will constitute enough of a pivot to lure you back in. We’ll see.
