The Walking Dead season 7 failed to impress a lot of fans due to its excessive bleakness and slow-burning plot. If you’re one of the critics who took issue with it, don’t worry – just about every crew and cast member of the show is promising that season 8 is going to be a whole lot better.
The latest person to weigh in is Tom Payne, who plays Jesus on the show. He attended Walker Stalker Con in Nashville this past weekend and while there, spoke about his excitement for the new run of episodes, saying the following:
“I think Season 8, that we’re getting into now, it’s completely different, first of all. I always told myself I wouldn’t say what I’ve heard other cast members say every other year, which is, ‘Oh, the next season is gonna be this! And the new episode is so many superlatives and so many words you use!’ And I’m like, ‘Come on, you can’t say the same things every year!’ But then I had to bite my tongue and says, ‘Well, actually…’ Season 8, the first few episodes are out of this world amazing. We’ve all been getting them and going, ‘Wow, okay we thought that was amazing!’ and then the next episode is amazing. The audience is going to be very happy with the direction we’re taking. We’re all really happy.”
It’s clear that Payne is hugely hyped for the new season and for fans to see it, which obviously raises our expectations even more for what’s to come. Recently, Simon Ogg confirmed that “all-out war” will arrive in the very first episode of the season and when combined with Payne’s comments, it seems that The Walking Dead is going to hit the ground running when it returns.
Furthermore, Payne also teased that he thinks the episodes they’re working on at the moment “are some of the best that have ever been shot.” Specifically, he thinks that one scene he filmed last week is “one of the iconic sequences in the show” and “has never happened before.”
Moreover, the actor also talked about the much-anticipated season 8 trailer, which is due to arrive this summer at San Diego Comic-Con. He hopes that it will get people properly excited but won’t spoil the big surprises that the season has in store.
“I kind of hope not because there is stuff like this sequence that was shot last week that I don’t want the audience to know about until it happens in the show. It’s a surprise and you’re like, ‘Whoa, that’s gonna happen!’ I don’t know, so I think the comic con trailer is a tough one because you don’t want to give away the cool stuff that’s coming. So, I think they’ve got a bit of a job on their hands cutting it together.”
The Walking Dead returns to AMC this fall.
