the walking dead

As is tradition, the cast and producers of AMC’s zombie drama ‘The Walking Dead’ took to the stage at San Diego Comic Con today to debut a trailer for the show’s upcoming eighth season. The series, which has arguably become AMC’s flagship drama, is also approaching its hundredth episode, a landmark that it will reach with the season premiere. So suffice it to say this is a big one.

Coming in the wake of a hotly anticipated season that served to establish a new antagonist in the form of Negan and which saw the deaths of a number of fan favorite characters, it’s safe to say that expectations are high for the eighth season.  Forget topping what you’ve already done, how do you live up to that sort of hype? For the producers, it seems, the solution lay in adapting the ‘All Out War’ storyline from the long-running comics on which the show is based.

Robert Kirkman, who is both the creator of the comic book version of ‘The Walking Dead’ and serves as an executive producer on the series, was present for the panel, where he promised that “We have all kinds of great stuff planned. Our next season… will be very action packed and very fast paced. I counted six explosions in the trailer alone.”

Speaking of the trailer, it is available here:

In addition to debuting the trailer, the Kirkman also took a moment to honor the late George A. Romero, saying that “My first experience watching ‘Night of the Living Dead‘… and just going on that ride for the first time and seeing what a zombie story could be… I was instantly in love with the genre and the man as a filmmaker. I couldn’t be more upset at the loss.”

The eighth season of ‘The Walking Dead’ is set to premiere on AMC on Sunday, October 22, 2017. The cast of the new season will include Andrew Lincoln, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Khary Payton, Xander Berkeley and others return alongside newcomers like Pollyanna McIntosh.

Be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more news on the upcoming eighth season of ‘The Walking Dead’ as it becomes available!