Though it remains consistently great television, there’s no denying that The Walking Dead does have a tendency to fall into a very familiar pattern of going long stretches without anything particularly eventful happening. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with character-focused drama (that is the basis of the show, after all), but when fans have been promised “all-out war” and all they’re given is a short (though admittedly, exciting) skirmish in the season 7 finale, there were always going to be disappointments.
Thankfully, things will be changing drastically this year, as Rick Grimes and co. will seemingly be put through the wringer come October, after series showrunner Scott Gimple previously warned fans that The Walking Dead‘s eighth season is poised to zip along at a brisk clip, beginning with the “explosive” premiere on October 22nd – for the record, that same episode will also go down as the show’s 100th instalment.
From there, the “all-out war” involving the Kingdom, Alexandria, and the Hilltop going up against Negan and his demented Saviors will really take hold, and it’ll seemingly yield a high body count. In fact, if Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel, is to be believed, season 8 will actually be something like an ’80s action movie.
It’s going to be like a Schwarzenegger versus Stallone action thing from the ’80s. I think there are, like, 10 explosions an episode. Every time you turn around, somebody’s shooting something or blowing something up. There’s some serious action that I don’t think we’ve seen on television since The A-Team went off the air.
Excited yet? Also of note, it’s been confirmed that The Walking Dead season 8’s premiere will merely reference that contentious “Old Man Rick” scene, before delivering a firm answer later in the year. And no, Rick Grimes isn’t in a coma – a scenario that would’ve reduced the past 99 episodes to some haunting, unforgettable fever dream. Besides, given the hype and excitement that the network has generated for episode 100, we struggle to believe that Gimple and Co. would pull the rug out from underneath us.
The Walking Dead season returns with a super-sized instalment on October 22nd. Look for TV’s biggest series to air via AMC in the States, while those across the pond can expect TWD to shuffle onto the small screen on Monday, October 23rd.
