‘The Walking Dead’ Star Seth Gilliam Reveals Where Father Gabriel Is Going (EW.com)

“It’s a show about people in extreme circumstances after a zombie apocalypse — I don’t think anybody’s got a real long shelf life, you know? So I am prepared every script that I get to see “…and then Gabriel gets his throat ripped out.” And I’d be fine with that, and if and when that happens will make it the most compelling or grisly or shocking or sad or joyful — if people hate the character — moment that it could possibly be. So I can’t really feel that chest of hope that “Hey, he’s alive in the thing so I’m going to be here until they close this show down for good.” It just doesn’t work that way.”

-Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel) , in the EW.com interview with Dalton Ross

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Check out this entertaining interview with Seth Gilliam (who you might remember from HBO’s “The Wire” and “Oz”, among many other TV gigs). We’re not sure what’s next on the agenda for Father Gabriel, but there’s no way it can be any good…

Click on “View original” to read the entire piece on EW.com, by Dalton Ross.

Walking Dead Director Greg Nicotero Explains How They Pulled Off That Premiere -SPOILER ALERT (EW.com)

EW.COM: When you were shooting stuff like that throat slitting scene, was part of you like, “Yeah, we’re never getting this on the air?”

GREG NICOTERO: When Scott Gimple pitched the episode we had a long conversation and I said, “Listen we have a great opportunity to put a little red herring in here because [MAJOR COMICS SPOILER REMOVED BY HORROR BOOM] So we set that up specifically to tease to the audience that Glenn might go. And so that is a perfect example of Scott and I taking something and just continually ramping it up. And the way that we accomplished the blood gags were that we put a tube around the actors’ necks and we shot the entire scene with the tube there, and then the actor came across with the knife and we sprayed the blood out, and the visual effects went in and erased the tube. So the tube was there the entire time. So we shot the whole scene and it was easier than putting a prosthetic on and trying to hide the tube. Again, a really good marriage of practical and digital and it’s so shocking. I had that low angle with Robin Lord Taylor — who is in Gotham — that was him, because he played the character Sam in episode 4 of last year. People will hopefully notice that that’s him. That’s where Rick gets his watch back. So we just put the tube on and shot the scene and I had this low angle where the blood sprayed the lens and they were like, “You’re never going to get away with that. They’ll never let you do it.”

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This EW.com piece, in which Greg Nicotero spills stuff about everything from that post-credits tease in the premiere, to wondering if they’re going to get away with certain gore, to the emotional re-unions of characters on the premiere, plus a big comics spoiler we had to remove! They didn’t bother with spoiler alerts for the comics, so when you read this piece on EW.com, BEWARE OF SPOILERS FROM THE COMICS UNLESS YOU ARE PAST ISSUE 100!

Click “View Original” in the lower left to read the entire article.

‘The Walking Dead’: Steven Yeun on what’s next for ‘resilient’ Glenn

EW: What is the aftermath for everyone in terms of seeing Hershel executed? Obviously there’s been a lot of death on the show but this one wass so brutal — this kindly creature to be killed off in a savage way. Plus he’s the moral compass, plus he’s your fiancées father, and everyone had sort of a front row seat to watch it happen. What is that loss going to do to Maggie and Glenn?

YEUN: Glenn doesn’t actually know that Hershel is dead. He’s probably the only one who doesn’t know. And for him, where he last left off with Hershel is…a lot of people have helped shaped Glenn into the person he is at this point and he’s taken bits and pieces from all of them, but none more than Hershel. And the last episode, where Glenn almost dies, the action that happens between Hershel and Glenn kind of solidifies that relationship and solidifies Hershel’s legacy as being passed on to Glenn. Just as easily as the symbolism of the watch was, just passing it onto him saying, “You are now part of this family. I accept you,” it’s that same thing. Glenn really felt like things were over. He was in dire straights and kind of subjecting himself to the negative portions of that. He was saying, “Hey, what’s the point of living? We’re going to get taken out by a glorified cold,” and Hershel is the one that keeps hope alive for him.

Gee, that’s …something else really depressing that didn’t occur to us. We do like the ‘individual stories’ thing that they’re trying so far,  just hoping they balance the dark ones out with some hope.

‘The Walking Dead’: Showrunner Scott Gimple on what’s next for the Governor

Give Michonne a crack at him, and it’d be a very short comeback!

By the way, there were dozens of very irate comments on the EW.com website when this posted because there wasn’t a spoiler alert (which of course ignited a big, heated debate on whether or not the pissed off people who wanted a spoiler alert were right or wrong, so I think I’d better err on the side of caution and give a SPOILER ALERT just in case.

 

‘The Walking Dead’: Showrunner Scott Gimple weighs in on Rick vs. Carol debate

EW: Tell me about the decision to make the virus storyline such a central part of the first half of the season. Where did that idea come from?
SCOTT GIMPLE: When we were making the episode “Clear” it was kind of a long drive to the town that we were shooting it in. And I was like, you know. I’m going to better myself. I’m going to listen to Camus’ The Plague. You know, it’s not just gonna be comics. I’m gonna get back into literature! And from The Plague my mind just drifted off to The Walking Dead. I was like, man, that’s a cool book and that’s a pretty cool idea. So there was that, and it was in my mind and I was thinking about how in third world situations, things break out — cholera and dysentery and bubonic plague. Then I had taken a trip to Edinburgh shortly after that at the end of the season to visit my wife’s family and there was this tour underneath the city and there was a lot about the bubonic plague and how it had broken out, how it was treated, and how they burnt the bodies. And it all sort of came together with the theme of safety in this place. It was just one of those things where you’re like “Oh, wow, that could be cool.”

-From the EW.com piece by Dalton Ross

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Well, I don’t know how “cool” the infected characters think it is to have blood dribble from their ears, nose, eyes, and mouth before their lungs finally fill with blood until they drown choking on it, but it is a good way to raise the stakes. I kind of laugh a little when Herschel talks about elderberry tea helping the symptoms–it’s not just a flu. This horrible thing is on a par (on my list of Diseases I Don’t Even Want To THINK About Getting) with Ebola or a flesh-eating virus as nasty as the one in Cabin Fever. Sure, herbal tea is just the thing for that. Hey, if it works for some of them, great, but I’d be yelling for someone to please get their hands on some morphine for me NOW, even if it made me cough to keep yelling until I got it. Or some vodka. Anything! Just seeing the people in the middle stages of infection coughing makes me wince in sympathy and think God, where’s Merle‘s narcotic stash from Season 2 that Daryl ended up keeping on him?
Anyway, I hope Carol will be back, in fact I think it might happen this season. Let’s just hope she’s not a zombie when we see her again… read the EW.com interview with Scott Gimple for more!

‘Walking Dead’: Melissa McBride talks about the ‘metamorphosis’ of Carol

SPOILER ALERT (for S3 of The Walking Dead AND the prison episodes of the graphic novel)

So far, they’re keeping VERY quiet about if we’ll see Carol again. I hope we do; Melissa McBride has said she had to talk Kirkman not once, but twice out of killing her off. McBride said in the Rolling Stone TWD cover story last month (we get the print version) that one of the times, it was because the original plan during the “Killer Within” episode was for her, not T-Dawg, to be the unexpected fast death before the bigger death of Laurie during childbirth (I guess ‘dying during childbirth’ is a tactful way of putting it).  Even if we never see her again (though I think we will… hopefully not in the same 1-mile radius about Tyrese, if Rick tells him, or she’s as dead as a walker) I will give them points for not having a character leave the show by being killed off in a sudden way that involves pools of blood (which is why I think she’ll show up down the road somewhere).

Speaking of that, do you want to know what happens to the character of Carol in The Walking Dead graphic novels? If you’re planning on reading them, or are and the lengthy prison arc is still in the early stages, STOP NOW, because it’s pretty shocking. Keep in mind Carol in the comics looks more like Andrea and didn’t lose a kid (I think) or have an abusive husband.

→SPOILER ALERT! THE WALKING DEAD GRAPHIC NOVEL SPOILER ALERT!←

Gonna try not to make this a giant run-on paragraph here, and the backstory is complicated, so here’s why/how Carol in TWD comic dies: She has a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship with Tyrese (hey, he’d be the first man I’d try to hook up with in the comics too) and they share a cell. Michonne shows up and is alone together in the gym with Tyrese; she comes on to him and they have sex. Carol, who was already feeling kind of lonely and off-kilter from all the horrible shit she and the group have lived through, either catches them or finds out, and cuts her wrists in their cell. The group find her in time–Tyrese feels terrible and guilty about it, and Michonne’s not exactly proud of it either–and save her life. Lori starts hanging out more with Carol since she knows Carol could really use some friendly support. Carol surprises the hell out of Lori by hinting around about “sharing” Rick between them sexually, and tries to kiss Lori. Lori tries to let her down easy, but worries about Carol’s mental health. Carol feels rejected. Not long after, poor Carol finally goes completely batshit and goes for a stroll outside. She approaches what appears to be a female walker (I say ‘appears” because it’s pretty rotten, missing chunks, etc.) who is chained up and kept around so that his scent will throw off other zombies from the humans living there) and starts talking to her like she’s human, telling her about how she doesn’t have any real friends, the prison isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, she’s lonely, etc. In one of the most disturbing scenes in the series (which sets the ‘disturbing’ bar pretty high) she strolls right up to it calmly, puts her arms around the zombie and asks if it likes her. The zombie bites her throat and she winces and says “I knew you liked me…”  as it tears in and rips out a big bite. The disturbing part is the look on her face, she looks happy but with her mind totally gone as she smiles and blood sprays everywhere. People in the group come running over as she collapses and bleeds out –Tyrese especially is in serious shock– and when they try to carry her inside, she gurgles to them to let her die (and dies). Of course, they’re still processing what the fuck just happened when she turns, sits up, and lunges for Tyrese- someone in the group reacts quickly and shoots her in the head.  So there you have it, suicide by zombie. Poor Sophie gets ‘adopted’ by Maggie and Glen.  It’s definitely not the most fucked-up thing that goes down in the prison era; most of the really disturbing things could NEVER be depicted on AMC. If they tried to re-create them for the series, it’d have to be so dimly lit and watered down that you wouldn’t even be able to tell what the hell is going on; there’s no way to do a TV version of them (that would get past the network and make it to air, anyway).

(END OF SPOILERS)

But I digress. Anyway, she (so far) has a slightly happier existence in her AMC TWD incarnation. I think another character–maybe not a prison resident– may end up snapping and commit suicide in a similar manner.  Kirkman and Scott Gimple have both stated they want to use events from the comic, but switch around characters and tweak the situations.  For instance, in the comics, Dale lived and it was him, not Herschel (who is not a even-tempered as he is on the show) who got ankle-bit suddenly by a zombie in a dark location and his leg amputated. Dale sticks around way, way longer than in the series… and Andrea hooks up with Dale (Daddy issues? His character repeatedly says he has no idea why Andrea would want to be his girlfriend, but oh well, he’s not going to complain). Kind of relieved we didn’t have to see that depicted on the show–the comic will suffice.

New ‘Walking Dead’ webisode series ‘The Oath’ is out now, and it’s a prequel

Now you can watch all three Walking Dead webisodes for this year (they generally do it between seasons, so this is the third batch).  For the first series we had the gruesome, gut-wrenching (in more ways than one, but damn it was sad) Bicycle Girl backstory. The second was a stand-alone featuring some really good talent (and a grim, satisfying payoff).

This year we get a prequel, and here’s a small spoiler as to what iconic moment from AMC’s The Walking Dead –come to think of it, the comic had it too–check out the four words from the below image (copyright AMC):

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Buckle up and enjoy, these three new webisodes (ominously titled “The Oath”)  should hold you over until the season 4 premiere this Sunday …especially since Greg Nicotero created and directed them!

Lew Temple (a.k.a. Axel) Talks About The Latest ‘Walking Dead’ Shocker — EW.com EXCLUSIVE (SPOILERS!)

Be sure you read both pages, because there was a scene we didn’t get to see – AND a dark turn for Axel’s character that Robert Kirkman and Glenn Mazzara had locked and loaded in case they decided to go a different way. Plus, find out where did Greg Nicotero (or his body cast) showed up in this episode.

 

‘The Walking Dead’: Robert Kirkman Talks About Tonight’s Episode, “Home” (Spoilers!)

Well, THAT got interesting… Joe Manganiello on Talking Dead! Oh, and some interesting developments on the Sunday night episode, “Home”, too! Oh course that’s what I REALLY meant to type, heh-heh…