As part of my interview sessions for The Walking Dead Season 5 at Comic-Con, I had the opportunity to sit down with a handful of journalists and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. Not only did he tease Season 5, but he talked about adapting the comic book series and let us know that we shouldn't expect to see Negan appear on the TV series any time soon.
The Walking Dead Season 4 did a great job of keeping things fresh, but also adapted some great moments from the comic book series. How does Season 5 compare so far?
Robert Kirkman: If we were adapting the comic book series directly, I would be incredibly bored because I'd be writing the stuff that I've written before. New elements I haven't worked on, like Terminus, keep me engaged in the writer's room. That said, I would say that Season 5 will possibly have more comic book moments than any season thus far. There's certainly a lot of ground to cover and there's a lot that we'll be getting to quickly, but we'll be getting to it in interesting ways... you won't see it coming.
Negan is a fan-favorite villain from the comic book series. Can we expect to see him show up on the TV series any time soon?
Robert Kirkman: Not really. At the pace that we're going, we're talking about somewhere like Season 12. We certainly don't think that far ahead about what's going to be on the TV show. I'm very happy that I'm still able to produce the comic book series with the same level of freedom and the TV show doesn't enter in my head. I'm still telling the story that I've always intended to and we'll deal with it in the show somehow, some way.
Can you talk about the interest surrounding Negan from both fans and you as a writer? He's definitely one of your more interesting characters in the world of The Walking Dead.
Robert Kirkman: How much I love a character is sometimes an indication of how the audience will react. I absolutely love writing that character and I love the different place we've gone with him. I'm as excited about bringing that character into the show as the fans are, but we don't want to rush it. We want to make sure we take our time and do it the right way.
Rick and his group of survivors barely survived The Governor. With no place to run, how will they stack up against Gareth and the community at Terminus?
Robert Kirkman: We saw at the end of Season 4 that this is a very different Rick Grimes. If this Rick had met The Governor, things would have gone a different way. Gareth is nothing like The Governor, but he's dealing with Rick and a group that is way more capable and they've been been through hell. Part of the show is watching them go up against threat after threat and seeing how they handle it. They are going to handle this Terminus threat VERY differently.
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The Walking Dead Season 5 starts on October 12th, so expect plenty of coverage and exclusive interviews between now and then. Catch up on our recent coverage by visiting the following links:
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
