Robert Kirkman talks The Walking Dead Season Four!

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

I shouldn’t have to write it, but I will anyway: If you haven’t seen the Season Three finale of “The Walking Dead” yet, stop reading now!

Today we’ve got a small tease for Season Four of the immensely popular AMC show, courtesy of comic creator/show executive producer Robert Kirkman. The writer sat down with IGN recently to give us a hint of what we can expect from Rick, Carl and The Governor in the next chapter of the show, which debuts in October.

Regarding The Governor (who will be returning):

Yeah, he’s still very much in the mix. That’s certainly not the last that we’ll see of him. When we see him again and where we see him again, that’s the big question. It’s not going to be like it was in Season 3; it’s not going to be Rick and the Governor on a collision course with a conflict between them. He’ll be used in very different ways next season.

Regarding the very uneasy relationship between Rick and Carl following Rick’s decision to unite the surviving residents of Woodbury with the prison’s occupants:

Rick has had a success. The people at the prison have survived this conflict with the Governor, he brought people from Woodbury into the prison, and he’s kind of had this big win. He’s had this moment where he’s brought people together and he’s doing good things. But he’s had this tremendous loss in that Carl has lost this piece of his humanity. This has been Rick’s main mission throughout the show, to protect his family. We’ve seen two very big failures on that front this season.

Moving into next season, we’re going to see a very different Rick, but one of his main goals is to manage this situation with Carl and see if he can bring him back from this darkness that’s crept into him. Whether or not he’s able to do that, we’ll have to see. But this is a big change in the character of Carl, but it’s something that’s going to be weighing heavily on Rick next season.

Kirkman also spoke about the upcoming conflicts the much larger group will be facing:

A bigger group brings with it bigger problems. They are certainly going to need a lot more resources, and they already have a lot of rebuilding to do, just from the things that happened in this battle between Woodbury and the prison. I don’t think there’s going to be a shortage of conflict and danger coming into the fourth season, despite the fact that they are still in the prison.

To read the entire interview, head over to IGN.