NYCC: The Walking Dead Season 3 panel at New York Comic-Con

NYCC: “The Walking Dead” Comic-Con Panel Recap

Warning: Season 2 spoilers ahead!

In anticipation of tonight’s premiere of season 3 of “The Walking Dead,” the AMC show’s stars and creator appeared at New York Comic-Con. The panel included Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Danai Gurira (Michonne), David Morrissey (the Governor), Gale Anne Hurd, Glen Mazzara, Michael Rooker (Merle), Norman Reedus (Daryl), and Robert Kirkman, and was led by host Chris Hardwick.

Related:  NYCC: Merle Dixon returns to The Walking Dead in Season 3!

Attendees were treated to a video clip from the premiere episode. The scene showed the remaining group of “Walking Dead” apocalypse survivors taking out a houseful of walkers, along with an owl. It is clear that some time has passed: Lori’s pregnancy is quite obviously showing.

According to the panel, there will be more zombie kills this season than in the two previous seasons combined. Spoilers weren’t given, but producers have mentioned that “no one is safe” this season.

Andrew Lincoln described a conversation with the writers: “I walked into the writers room and asked, what do you think Rick’s breaking point is? Well, that’s the worst thing I could have asked. We find out this season.”

Readers of the comic book series have some clues as to what that breaking point could be, but it is not yet known whether the series with follow along same storyline as the comic series which, without giving too much away, includes some very dark developments for Rick and his family.

Chandler Riggs told the crowd that “it’s nice playing a darker character.” Between being shot, the death of Dale, loss of Sophia, and his own execution of Shane, Carl has had a lot to deal with.

Norman Reedus said his character Daryl “feels valuable in his new family, and I think he would do anything to keep them alive.”

We have already learned that Daryl’s older brother Merle (Michael Rooker) will be return this season. When host Hardwick suggested that Merle is “a jerk,” Rooker said, “I don’t think he’s a jerk. I think if you lived in this world, you’d think, I want to be behind that guy. He’s a tough *sshole.”

Guirra, who plays the new character Michoone, said it is “like the icing on the cake. Being a part of ‘Walking Dead’ has been a really great time. I think Michonne is a bit of a survivor. She’s an intense chick.”

When Morrissey was asked if he saw his character as evil, the actor said, “Nobody really sees himself that way,” adding that he sees the Governor as offering “a secure place in an insecure world. I like him.”

An audience Q&A followed.

Riggs was asked if he’d like to see another young character in the series, “maybe a girlfriend” for Carl, he replied, “I don’t want to spoil anything… but Beth is 17, Carl is 13… you might see something there.” He later added that “some of the scenes, I didn’t know if I could do it.” But Lincoln chimed in, saying, “you nailed every single scene.”

The audience asked if there would be a cure to the disease, which has infected all, even the living, such that if they die – for any reason – and their brain is not destroyed, they will return as a walker. Kirkman, who created “The Walking Dead” for Image Comics, said “it’s kind of not important. To find a cure, they’d have to go to a lab, and so on, and it would be a very different show. This is just about people living day to day.”

Finally, a female audience member was booed when she mentioned a spoiler from the comics, and asked whether that plot twist would happen this season. Kirkman said that “certain big events in the comics may happen differently, or not at all.”  The two previous seasons have already deviated somewhat from the comics.

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Don’t miss the season 3 premiere of The Walking Dead, Oct. 14. Only on AMC. Check out the previously released 4-minute Season 3 Comic-Con trailer below:

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