Robert Kirkman on 'Walking Dead' season two: 'You haven't seen anything yet'

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With The Walking Dead coming out on DVD next week, the show’s writer-producer and original comic book’s creator Robert Kirkman answers some of our burning questions about the second season, the upcoming video game and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What makes the DVD a must buy for fans?

ROBERT KIRKMAN: There’s a lot of cool behind-the-scenes footage, we had a great guy on set every minute of every day to catch a lot of candid footage and it’s put into bunch of documentaries. Plus, of course, we have the six episodes.

I love that it’s coming out now instead of like some TV shows that put out the DVD right before the next season.

It always bugs me when I want to re-watch the last season of Lost but I can’t watch 22 episodes in the four days just before the new season starts. I understand that they do it for marketing reasons, but I wish they would give us more time.

Exactly. How are things going on season 2?

Great. We’re mapping out everything. We got a lot of cool ideas. Everyone here is mindful of how well received the first season was. We’re breaking our backs, story wise, to make sure the next season is twice is good, or three times as good, with a lot of twists and turns and pushing the envelop of what you can do on TV.

The first season alternated mainly between the camp site and Atlanta. What will the setting be for season 2?

I don’t know if I can go into that, but I know [showrunner Frank Darabont] has said we’re going to see Hershel’s farm. We’re looking to take some picturesque rural landscapes and playing with that and coming up with some cool zombie visuals. We’ll see some of the locations of the first season, but we’re going to mainly focus on breaking new ground. Oh, and we’re going to feature a lava planet.

Of course, the survivors have to stop at Mustafar. How much Rick vs. Shane drama is going to play into season 2?

That’s definitely the core dynamic that’s going on, but there’s a lot of other interesting stuff in the mix. We’re going to seeing a lot of Andrea and a lot more of Laurie.

How much is Frank Darabont writing/directing?

He’s focusing on writing. He’s in writers room every day. I’m writing some episodes and he’s writing some episodes. We’re trying to figure out what we’re doing with the directing right now. The logistics and also being big part of the writers room will limit his time.

Is the great Bear McCreary staying on as composer?

Yes.

And we still have to wait until October?

Yes, that’s pretty public at this point. That’s the target.

The Walking Dead will be at Comic-Con, I assume?

Oh yeah, indeed. We’re going to have a 12-foot-tall zombie costume

I’ve played through Left 4 Dead, so what will the upcoming Walking Dead video game bring new to the genre?

Left 4 Dead is much more focused on action. On of the key aspects of Walking Dead is it focuses on characters and the emotion, and that theme is very much alive in the game, and luckily with modern games you can actually do that.

Anything else you can tease to from about season 2?

We’ve been talking to [zombie effects master] Greg Nicotero a lot about some cool zombie stuff he has planned. As much as this show pushed the envelope of gore on TV, the joy of seeing the best zombies ever done on a TV show every week, all I can say you haven’t seen anything yet.