Angela Kang made her first public comments about the upcoming season of the zombie drama during a "Kick-Ass Women of AMC" panel on Wednesday.
The Walking Dead's newest showrunner, Angela Kang, made her first public appearance since taking over the top job from Scott M. Gimple during an AMC press event Wednesday. While Kang remained tight-lipped about the futures of series stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick) and Lauren Cohan (Maggie), she did reveal one major detail to expect when the zombie drama returns in October. "We're playing with time in the season, so we get to jump forward in the story," Kang revealed during a "Kick-Ass Women of AMC" panel.
That confirmed that the AMC drama will indeed follow the events of creator Robert Kirkman's comic book series in which the narrative jumped forward two years following the end of the "All-Out War" arc between Rick and Negan.
Television is a different media than comics, even just from a practical point of view. There are main characters in the book that drift away for 17 issues. And that's weird in television. But that's something you can do. And also, I think if there's a character there, they need an alpha and an omega.
They need a beginning, middle and end," he said. "Sometimes in the book, there's long stretches where characters don't have much to do or you don't see them. If there's a human being on your show, you need a beginning, middle and end. And you can find inspiration from the books. That's the No. 1 thing, I think."
The Walking Dead returns in October. A formal premiere date and trailer will be announced at San Diego Comic-Con.