Earlier this month it was announced that “The Walking Dead” was renewed for a third season and bumped up to 16 episodes. That’s up from 6 episodes in Season 1 and 13 in Season 2. Just recently Tom Savini (who is lobbying for the part) said that John Hawkes was the producers’ choice to play Philip Blake, aka “The Governor”, in next year’s season.

Apparently that’s not the case. An update from Lilja’s Library drops a bomb on that rumor along with some additional Season 3 tidbits.

“The small town of Senoia in Coweta County is about to become zombie central for the filming of a hit cable show The Walking Dead. The show is scheduled to shoot in the town in May and construction of zombie sets will begin next week, which will involve 60 local carpenters. Scott Tigchelaar of Raleigh Studios Atlanta says people can expect to see the town a little dirtier than normal to fit the look of the show… It was earlier rumored that John Hawkes would play Philip Blake, the psychotic zombie-killer who declares himself the Governor of Woodbury. Now, it looks like that won’t happen. Hawkes’ publicist states quite plainly that “John is NOT appearing on The Walking Dead.” ”

Don’t forget that the still ongoing Season 2 returns February 12th on AMC.