Walking Dead Author Drops Season Four Hints

Robert Kirkman, author of The Walking Dead series of graphic novels, has told The Hollywood Reporter that there is a significant change in the direction of the next season of the TV series based on his books.

Kirkman, also an executive producer of the hit zombie drama, has revealed that there will be a “time jump” from where the embattled survivors of the zombie takeover left things at the end of season three – we last saw them admitting more people into the prison they have holed up in.

“It's only a few months,” Kirkman admitted, “The prison that we see [in season four] is a very different prison and the characters that we see are very different from the last time we saw them.”

Despite the show's crossover success, behind-the-scenes dramas have seen The Walking Dead burn through three showrunners in as many years. It is rumoured that the exits may have all been acrimonious. [TWD's US network AMC is known as a tough taskmaster, a stand-off between AMC and Mad Men producer Matthew Weiner resulted in the show's year-long hiatus following season four.]

Most recently, the third year of, TWD was its most successful season with runner Glen Mazzara (replacing Hollywood director Frank Darabont) adding tense face-offs between feuding rival communities and fast-paced plots. New runner Scott Gimpie has set about finding a balance between the two styles. And, as a longtime fan of the books, Kirkman says Gazzara has produced “the most number of scenes that are adapted directly from the comic series or very close to what we did.”

In the way of hints/spoilers, Kirkman offered only that arch-villain The Governor “is still out there and still a threat, we're going to see him in a new light and he won't appear until we least expect it.”

He added that Bob Stookey, a fan favourite in the books, will enter the series and indicated that Gimpie may start working in more recent storylines from the books, now a decade-old serial. Kirkman did not deny the rumours that Gimpie views the show as a 'remix' of the books.