You read our panel report and saw the new trailer — now tremble before some choice tidbits io9 acquired from the cast and crew of The Walking Dead at the Comic-Con press roundtables. Learn about Daryl Dixon's fan clubs' names and the quest to bring an elusive, naked walker to living rooms across the land.



1. io9 asked Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman if the recent death of certain cast member in The Walking Dead #100 (contextual spoilers here) will carry over into the TV show's universe. Coyness ensued, naturally:

Robert Kirkman: The show and the comic are very different and will continue to be like that. We've diverged enough that it might happen in the one-hundredth episode, it might happen in the one-hundred-and-fiftieth episode [...] It's very strange. I remember being in my house in Kentucky writing [the comic], and to go from that to [the Walking Dead obstacle course] is absolutely bizarre. It keeps getting bigger at Comic-Con every year. Next year we'll show up in a spaceship.

2. Robert Kirkman hopes that The Walking Dead will become the next All My Children of zombie programming:

Robert Kirkman: I'm hoping to get to 25 seasons or something like that. I know that sounds completely unrealistic and I'm more than likely joking, but that would be a lot of fun, seeing these [characters] run around until they're in their sixties. It'd be hilarious. We'll just keep telling the best stories that we can and hope it goes on for a decade or two.


3. To craft the personalities of their new, respective characters, David Morrissey (who plays the new villain The Governor, left) turned to 1984 and the Vietnam War novel The Things They Carried. To become the katana-swinging wasteland warrior Michonne, actress Danai Gurira looked to action flicks:

Danai Gurira: I did some research during auditions and I was gleaning that she's quite the entity [...] She has a bestie, Andrea, and they have a common bond being alpha women who respect and complement each other. I've always wanted to play that character who can be an action figure.


4. There's a good chance Andrea (Laurie Holden) will hold a grudge against the survivors after they escaped Hershel's farm:

Laurie Holden: Seriously, they didn't even leave a note on the car. They could've scratched out Sophia's name on the hood of the car, don't you think? [...] The pragmatic part of her knows that we got separated, but I also think that Andrea waited and went to the highway for a week. But [Michonne] said, "We got to go," but Andrea's saying, "No, they'll come back, they'll come back!" There's probably quite a bit of confusion as to why they didn't try.


5. We asked actor Norman Reedus about Daryl Dixon's popularity:

io9: When did you realize you were the audience's favorite character? Norman Reedus: I will sound like such a jerk if I even answer this. I get a lot of presents. There are also fan groups, like "Dixon's Vixens" and "Reedus Sluts." I went to pick up my son from school at the beginning of Season Two, and he had a big smile on his face. So I asked him, "What's up with the smile?" He goes, "Some of the bigger kids at school asked, 'Is your dad Daryl Dixon?'" And he goes, "Yeah!" So now he's getting love from the big kids.


6. Actor Andrew Lincoln filled us in on Rick Grimes' marital situation and the new, post-Shane status quo:

Andrew Lincoln: [Rick and Lori] are in a worse place than they've ever been. It's caused a seismic rift between them. Mama and Papa also no longer exist for the other members of the group. They're in a cold place, and yet they're still alive. He's succeeding in his promise [...] I think it was such an extreme situation on the back of the invasion that he had to lay down the law. It's "my way or the highway, or we will die."


7. Lincoln and producer/make-up maven Greg Nicotero discussed the unique feng shui of the survivor's new penitentiary home:

Greg Nicotero: The prison is meant to be a house of horrors, there's dark corridors. We really wanted to contrast Hershel's farm with its sense of safety. Andrew Lincoln: It's really unpleasant to film [the prison scenes]. All of the crew have gas masks, but not the actors. The dust is so terrible. Greg Nicotero: It's not like we're shooting on a pristine set. They come in with dust, smoke, dirt, and gunk and have to make it look like it's been abandoned for a while. Andrew Lincoln: It got so bad that they had to send a memo to everybody saying, "You will not die by inhaling this dust."


8. Were any zombies just too gross for television?

io9: I recently watched Full Tilt Boogie [a documentary about From Dusk Till Dawn, which Greg worked on] and the crew discussed how some of the vampires were too disgusting for the final cut. Did you ever run into that problem with The Walking Dead? Greg Nicotero: No, but there was one walker in Season One. There was that great shot in Night of the Living Dead of the nude woman walking. The thing that always makes me laugh is that you can see a grip with a tree branch over her (to take away from her nudity) because it was 1968. Frank Darabont and I always wanted to do this nude walker. That was truthfully the only note we got from AMC — you can't show that [...] There was an instance that we shot with a walker in a sundress. There were a lot of rotted back and chest prosthetics. I just said, "Hey let's shoot it, and if we can use it, we'll use it." She wasn't fully nude, and we're still editing those episodes.


9. There will be famous zombie Easter eggs next season.

Greg Nicotero: Being a fan of the genre, I put stuff on screen that I want to see. The episode that I just directed has some in-joke zombie cameos for the fans, which I'm not going to talk about. People who know the genre will go, "Holy shit, I know who that's supposed to be!"


10. OK Computer is the soundtrack to Rick Grimes' brain.

Andrew Lincoln: Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" is something I've been listening to quite a lot because I've been going bat-shit crazy.