The Walking Dead reaches an important milestone when it returns for its eighth season, as the premiere will mark the hit zombie drama’s 100th episode. While chatting to IGN, Tom Payne – who plays Jesus on the show – was able to tease just what we should expect from this special installment, saying that fans will definitely be happy with how things kick off.
“It’s been just crazy action, and really exciting to film and to read and to be involved in. Scott Gimple [showrunners]’s spoken a lot about the 100th episode being a jump off for the next hundred episodes. Season 8 certainly starts with a big bang and then continues to ramp up, which is really exciting. I know the audience will be really happy with, certainly how it starts, because they’re taking the fight back, and then every single episode in the first half there’s a moment which makes you go, ‘Wow, oh my god, I can’t believe that.'”
Like the actor mentions, this sort of opening does seem like something that will satisfy viewers. After all, season 7 was widely criticized for not packing enough of a punch (apart from its gut-wrenching first episode, of course), but it looks like The Walking Dead has got its mojo back this year.
Payne then went on to talk about what the rest of the season will tackle, hinting that there will be a lot of action and character drama to come. In particular, it will deal with some challenging moral dilemmas about what’s acceptable in war.
“I think there’s some really strong work from certain characters this year who have been given amazing character arcs to go through,” Payne said. “There’s just an insane amount of action, and different dilemmas. There are characters who are involved in war, so what is the right thing to do during war? Is it just kill everyone? In every war, there are casualties who maybe shouldn’t have been. There are dilemmas that I hope the audience is involved in as well in watching it, and there are choices to be made of how to move forward at certain stages. I’m excited to see what the audience thinks of decisions that certain characters make.”
One moment that stood out in The Walking Dead Comic-Con trailer was a brief shot of Jesus sparring with Morgan. Was this a real fight, or just a work out? Payne wouldn’t be drawn on an answer, but did talk about how great that scene was to film.
“For me, that was an ‘oh my god, yes, I get to show off some fight stuff,’ and also with another character who has fight stuff. Whatever it is, it’s just very cool to see characters who know what they’re doing get together and do that.”
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 22nd.
