Oh, it’s going to be dark and brutal? Nice change of pace from the last couple seasons, which have just been a non-stop feel-good jamboree. And by the way, we’d like to add YO, KIRKMAN and GIMPLE! Listen up: YOU BETTER LEAVE GLENN ALONE! And don’t get cute and whimsically decide to trade his fate in the comics with Tyreese, either. However, unless you mess with him, Daryl, or Michonne, we’ll look forward to the premiere.

In the screencaps we put up here from the trailer, it looks like Rick is either hallucinating or having nightmares again, or attacked by a wild animal (not infected with the zombie virus, obviously. Can you imagine how much shorter (but action-packed) the series would be if fish, deer, possums, birds, snakes, dogs, house pets, horses, and the rest of the animal kingdom were infected? They could only stretch that out to two seasons, tops, and that’s with a warehouse-sized armory of weapons and ammo, not to mention canned food.*

(See below screencap) DARYL! HEADS UP! TURN AROUND! Actually, I doubt anyone who has been smart enough to survive up till now, even if they were really bored, would get close enough to a LIVE Walker to hang a hand-written sign around their neck, so he’s probably OK. Better be. OK, of course he will be. I think the creators are wise enough to know that if they killed off Daryl, they’d have mobs (including plenty of enraged females) coming at them with torches and pitchforks.

aaand unless they’re a thin, rickety enough actor/actress to portray the Walker below, looks like we’ll get more animatronic Walkers coming up! We’re all for practical effects.

*There’s a great book series (it may only be comprised of two) out there from approximately a decade ago where yup, the animals are infected too; it includes an amazing, harrowing fight for survival by a lone woman hiding from her bloodthirsty HUMAN attackers in a zoo and getting in way, way over her head. As I recall, the female character is also going through heroin withdrawal at the same time, as if being chased by a gang of rapist homicidal drug-dealers through a zoo where all the cages are open, including the lion’s, wasn’t shitty enough. I’m blanking on the author’s name and the title (I want to say Bryan Smith authored them, but I don’t think I’ve got the last name right), so post a comment if you like brutal, bleak, gruesome and well-written post-zombie apocalypse survival novels with likeable characters, and I’ll get off my butt and get the info on the novel for you.  It was so intense I couldn’t read the whole thing in one sitting; I needed sanity breaks.