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Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH ‘Walking Dead’ Scoop In New Blog Post

We cannot be more excited to welcome Angela Kang as the new showrunner for The Walking Dead. She’s been a writer on the series since season 2 and has been the scribe behind some of the show’s strongest episodes including “Judge, Jury, Executioner”, “Four Walls and a Roof”, “The Next World” and “A” which she co-wrote with Scott Gimple.

“Four Walls and a Roof”

Not only does Kang have the tenure, but she has the passion and the drive to bring the series closer to the comics and back to its roots with a new season that is apparently reminiscent of those early years fans fell in love with.

[row]“We have to talk about Angela Kang if we talk about this season because she is the creative force this season. She’s been on the show since Season Two and I think she’s breathed new life into it and given us a collaborative feel on set and also just an energy. A real positive energy. It feels like the show that I always thought we would get to when I shot the pilot in Atlanta nine years ago,” series star Andrew Lincoln said earlier this year. [/row]

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Another thing we love about Angela Kang is just how open she is about the upcoming season. If she has something she wants to share, she doesn’t beat around the bush – she shares it. Well, Kang recently took to AMC for a new blog post that revealed a heap of new images from season 9 and her commentary for each is extremely insightful and rewarding for fans who are looking for some more scoop. Check out what she had to say below!

Birds & Nature:

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“In the comics, there’s a moment where the characters talk about how the birds are making a comeback, which totally makes sense given the state of the world. It’s your typical brilliant, almost-throwaway Kirkman-ian line that sticks in the imagination and we wanted to pay tribute to that idea. For our characters at various points this season, nature is both a wonder to behold and an obstacle to overcome. In this moment, we see Rick, Michonne and Judith as a happy family, unafraid to be outside the walls of Alexandria, which is a hint about the state of the world… but we also know that crows can be a nuisance (as well as creepy harbingers of death!)”

Michonne’s touching tribute to Carl:

amc website (blog)
AMC

“We see Michonne holding a bloodied baseball bat, looking horrified. Michonne was complicit with Rick in deciding to keep Negan alive for the sake of the future. That decision tied Michonne to Negan and his story, which is something we’ll be exploring this season. And it’s hard to see here, but if you look closely at Michonne’s hair this season, you’ll see she has a small plaid wrap around one of her dreads. That’s a piece of Carl’s shirt, which she’s now wearing to keep his memory close.”

Daryl’s New Weapons:

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“Since our characters are being more stingy with their bullets this year, we wanted to make sure Daryl had a good secondary weapon for hand-to-hand fighting (a crossbow is difficult to reload, so it’s not good for quick combat). Norman helped to custom design a pair of knives that he can use for two-handed combat. They’re saw-backed Bowie knives with finger rings that allow you to quickly twirl the knives into different positions (you can grip them in either direction).”

Meet Jed, the Savior + Carol’s tribute to Sophia:

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“Badass Carol is facing off with a new character. Keen-eyed viewers may have recognized Rhys Coiro in the trailer — a terrific actor playing the Savior ‘Jed’ this season. Melissa and I talked about Carol’s wardrobe at the start of the season and she said she really loves wearing men’s button-down shirts — that’s when she feels the most quintessentially ‘Carol.’ And the new necklace is a tribute to her daughter Sophia. Melissa carried around a hair bauble of Sophia’s for years in her pockets and we thought it’d be interesting to make a piece of ‘memorial jewelry’ out of it.”

Things are changing at the Hilltop:

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“Here, we’re seeing a new look for both Maggie and the Hilltop. The most obvious change for Maggie is that her hair has grown out, but she’s also standing on the balcony of the Barrington House as if it’s home (which it is now), looking out at her thriving community, where we see several new elements within the walls. Comic book readers might recognize the communal tables and picnic area on the lawn below Maggie. To the left, we can catch a glimpse of the row of trailers, and the edge of a new structure attached to them. There’s a water tower… a gate is open to the outside. And there’s a goat!”

Maggie’s comic outfit:

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“This is all part of the story of how much time has passed and the type of leader Maggie is and how Hilltop is doing relative to the other communities. (Oh, and the style of her shirt is a nod to Maggie in the comics at this stage of the story!)”

Turns out the letter “A” does mean something:

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“Jadis has a new hairdo and clothing, but it looks like she might be up to her old tricks with the walkie and the helicopter. Or is she? And speaking of the helicopter, you might also notice the three rings symbol that’s appeared on various items at the Heaps before, and the ‘A’ we’ve seen crop up periodically. Yes, there is a meaning to both things. No, I won’t spoil it right now!”

The Sanctuary gets a makeover:

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“The front of the Sanctuary is looking very different since the end of the war. There’s corn growing in front of the old factory building, but you can see that some of the stalks are looking pretty dried out.”

Angela Kang Just Revealed SO MUCH 'Walking Dead' Scoop In New Blog Post
AMC

“We’re seeing graffiti in the Sanctuary for the first time since the war: ‘Saviors Save Us.’ After all the misery we saw at the Sanctuary when the Saviors were in charge, this is a surprising message for our people to see in the aftermath of the war. ‘We Are Still Negan’ is a nod back to the way the Saviors used to call themselves Negan, written in response to the call for help. In working on this story, the writers’ room discussed the appeal of authoritarian governments as a reaction to chaos and war. Andrew Lincoln picked up on that immediately when he saw this moment in the script and said, ‘Well, it’s the rise of fascism, isn’t it?’ (Read that in a British accent.) We don’t tend to write in reaction to current events because we start breaking our stories 10 months or more before the season starts to air, but we do look to history for lessons about how civilizations react to war, pestilence, natural disaster, etc. This season, we’re reflecting the way the characters in the comic book looked to the past to create a future, so it’s especially valuable for us now!”

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After all of that, we are pretty much looking like Glenn right now. Kang gave us so much to break down, and even though we are in total overload, it’s only gotten us more excited for the new season. The cast has often referred to season 9 as a fresh start and a new chapter for the series, and with a pretty big time jump and this new intel from Kang, we think it’s shaping up to be one of the best seasons in years!

The Walking Dead will return for season 9 on  Sunday, October 7th on AMC.