Hey, Walking Dead fans. Been wondering why we haven’t seen the Governor (David Morrissey) much this season? Turns out the producers got a little “sick” of him last year.

After having most of last season focused on the eyepatched baddie, the Governor has been noticeably absent from the first several episodes of Walking Dead’s fourth season after disappearing at the end of last year. Not that the gang hasn't been busy, but still.

Aside from Michonne’s hapless attempts to track him down, he’s been a complete non-factor. According to series creator Robert Kirkman, that was intentional — mostly because they had seen enough of the character to last ‘em for at least a little while.

That’s not to say Morrissey’s portrayal wasn’t good (if anything, it was a little too creepy), it’s just they felt the new year needed some breathing room from the season-long arc about Woodbury and its psycho leader.

Here’s how he explained it to The Hollywood Reporter:

"We've just devoted an entire season to the conflict of The Governor and [new showrunner] Scott Gimple came in and was like, 'You know what? I'm sick of The Governor.' He actually said that. It's not that we don't like that character; it's just that we needed to give that character a break. Going right back into that would seem like more retread of season three and that's the thing we don't want to do… The Governor is going to see quite a leap in who he is and what his motives are. The Governor that we saw at the end of season three was this homicidal maniac that lost control of his town and we haven't seen him for a long time. He's been stewing and we may be seeing a very different Governor when we finally do catch up to him. We like to keep people guessing and he definitely will return this season. Just when you think things are getting to a breaking point, that's when The Governor layer will be thrown in to make things that much more deadly and dangerous. It's going to be a really big, memorable moment in the show.”

Okay, that actually makes sense — and has us extremely curious to see how insane this guy has gone by the time he finally does resurface. But, c’mon — when the hell will that be?!

Do you like how they’ve played the Governor’s absence, or do you miss Morrissey?

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)