Season 6: The Show Vs. The Comic

AMC describes Season 6 like this: “Season six starts with Alexandria’s safety shattered by multiple threats. To make it, the people of Alexandria will need to catch up with our survivors’ hardness while many of our survivors will need to take a step back from the violence and pragmatism they’ve needed to embrace. These reversals won’t happen easily, or without conflict. But now Rick’s group is fighting for something more than survival… They’re fighting for their home, and they will defend that at any cost, against any threat, even if that threat comes from within.”

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to compare the upcoming season with the comics. Fans were excited a few weeks ago to learn about the addition of Heath and Denise, but what else will the show stay true to? Read on to find out!

EW: We’re hitting a period in the comics that is about Rick taking control of Alexandria, and dealing with threats both internal (like a botched mutiny by Nicholas) and external (like the Scavengers and a herd of zombies that gets through the walls). How much of what we see in season 6 will match up to that? And what will be the biggest difference between what we see in season 6 and this stage of the comics?

RK: I can’t tell you how closely season 6 will follow the comics! We have to keep people guessing. If you’re paying attention, the material around volume 13 or so of the comic series has been getting adapted into the show most recently, but we always reserve the right to stray from the source or even jump back or ahead and do things out of order. All that said, the biggest differences we’ll see revolve around Daryl, who was never in the comic, and Carol, who was long dead and never as cool as the TV version by this point.

RK: In addition to that, we have Lennie James’ Morgan, who is also very different (and cooler) than his comics counterpart. Having Lennie, who was such a huge part of season 1 and amazing every time we had him back, finally a regular part of this show is really going to energize this show for the coming season. And I would argue this show wasn’t really in need of reenergizing, so it’s just going to be that much better.

EW. Showrunner Scott Gimple mentioned to me that you all are going to explore some backstory this season to things that are only mentioned in the comic and get a look at some things that happened in Alexandria’s past. What can you say about that and some of the other time-jumping we are going to see this season?

RK: I’m in the enviable position of constantly seeing Scott and the rest of the writers dig up morsels from my work and doing things with them I never could have imagined. All I’ll say is that a few of the things coming deal with very cool, very beloved parts of the comic series and expand them in ways that die-hard fans are going to love. Oftentimes we do things that are cool, but risky, and I know some people will love it, but there’s a potential for some people not to like the changes we’re making or things we’re adding. This is not one of those times. This stuff is awesome.

Make sure to check out Entertainment Weekly for the rest of the interview! And comic fans, what are YOU most excited to see this season? Let us know in the comments below!