'The Walking Dead' Producer Hypes New Season

A mind behind AMC’s “The Walking Dead” made the New York Comic Con rounds this past weekend, and brought with her details and a clip or two from the 2010 hit freshman drama’s sophomore run.

Shocktillyoudrop.com gave the internet the Oct. 15 panel’s scoop, where executive producer Gale Ann Hurd treated a packed IGN Theater house to an extended scene from the Oct. 16 season premiere.

Survivors led by Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) sought shelter amid a tangled, massive maze of freeway vehicles as an undead horde approached, as recapped by STYD correspondent Edward Douglas. In the ensuing chaos, one survivor cuts his arm and starts bleeding buckets.

Others seek shelter underneath vehicles and atop the survivors’ camper. Meanwhile, Andrea (Laurie Holden) misses the warning Rick risked life and limb to run back and deliver and ends up accosted by a walker inside the camper.

“The Walking Dead” even having filmed a second season is practically its own tale of something “dead” resuscitating and walking around at least a little while longer. Not only did show-runner Frank Darabont exit the series between Season One’s end and the show getting a 100-percent confirmed second season, but concerns over the show’s production costs nearly torpedoed it as well.

During tense negotiations that similarly nearly rang a death knell for his own acclaimed AMC drama, “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner even claimed that network brass made continuing his show a secondary priority behind finding the ways and means to continue the undead (clearly, In more senses than one) comic book-based series into a second season, and hopefully beyond.

“Well, I started checking the rights I guess maybe now it's about three years ago,” Hurd told STYD of the show’s origins.

“I found that they were actually potentially available and that as it turned out, one of my closest friends, Frank Darabont said he had the rights for quite a long time and had written a pilot that did not go forward at NBC. After finding that, my phone call to Frank to say, “Frank, ‘The Walking Dead”?’

He said, ‘Eh, forget it. I tried. It didn't work out.’ I said, ‘You know what? Maybe it's time to do it a little differently and go to the places that aren't obvious,’ and one of the places was AMC with whom my company, specifically one of my executives, Ben Roberts, had been talking about doing genre material.

And so it came to pass. The first season was a hit with audiences and critics alike, and recently hit Netflix’s ever-growing online-streaming library – a library that also recently added fellow AMC smashes “Breaking Bad” and, ironically, the long-demanded “Mad Men.”

Hurd claimed this season will please any fan with a “cast-iron stomach,” adding proudly that “The Walking Dead” has never gotten a network note that they absolutely must tone down the show’s considerable gore. “We were familiarized with what their standards and practices are, but remember, this is the channel that shows two weeks of classic horror films during Fearfest leading up to Halloween, so they wouldn't have been able to continue that program block if they had censored to the point that those horror films were turned into Disney movies,” Hurd explained.

The first season was but a six-episode test run. This season will be split between an initial seven-episode run starting Oct. 16, followed by six more concluding episodes this February after a hiatus around Christmas. Seem like a long, teasing layoff? Don’t be so touchy. Hurd explained they only do it that way for love of the fans.

“Well, we take a hiatus after the seventh episode, so that people can enjoy Christmas, (Laughs) and football playoffs and the Super Bowl without having to make a ‘Sophie's Choice’ with what they're going to watch,” Hurd said.

Production ‘s nature changed a bit between seasons, beyond simply Darabont’s exit. Hurd claimed comic creator Robert Kirkman now has an increased “deep and daily” involvement over Season One, and has even moved his family to Los Angeles to accommodate his enhanced role. Additionally, though the show was still shot around Atlanta, GA this past summer, Hurd claims it will be very evident to a point during the season that the  story has moved beyond Atlanta’s city limits.

“Yeah, because if you've read the comics, one of the major locations in the first two issues is Hershel's Farm, and we spend a significant amount of season two with Hershel, his family on his farm,” Hurd said. “It forays out from there. But, it's very much transitioning into a little more rural environment.

“It's harder to have seasons when you're shooting 13 episodes and it's 99 degrees out and 99 percent humidity. But, as we get into the fall now and we're still shooting, we will be able to—I know this is a disappointment to some—but, some of the characters will be able to wear long sleeves and jackets.”

Find out more about season two of "The Walking Dead" and tonight's big premiere here.