Creator Robert Kirkman talks ‘The Walking Dead’ season 4, the deaths, and the future for The Governor

Season three of AMC’s The Walking Dead is now “in the books” and Robert Kirkman, writer of The Walking Dead comics and executive producer on the show, recently spoke at length about the decisions and future of the show in an April 1 THR article.

Tons of spoilers if you have not viewed the season 3 finale.

David Morrissey promises ‘Big Surprises’

One the possible surprises for fans was the survival of The Governor.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do with the Governor (David Morrissey) next season. Having him be that diabolical and sinister will serve his character moving forward and that was a pretty important and defining moment for him that will pay off in the fourth season…We’ve definitely got more story to tell with that guy. I always liked the idea of seeing him again and not having a clear resolution to that conflict. Rick and the group are still at the prison and the Governor is still out there. There’s more ground to mine. Knowing the Governor isn’t dead is going to weigh on these characters when we come back in season four and we’ll have to see where things go…It’s going to be different in a lot of ways.”

SPOILER ALERT WARNING – LAST WARNING

The major death in the season 3 conclusion is a huge deviation from the comic book mythos and Kirkman addresses that decision.

“It’s a big departure from the comics, which to a certain extent is somewhat risky but at the end of the day I like the idea of there being big differences that key in to this is the show, this is the comic. I like that there’s some kind of separation there. It was definitely something that weighted upon us heavily. The unfortunate thing is that you’re not really going to see why this was a good decision and good for the show until season four. We thought having that tragic end to her story line — having [Andrea] work so hard to save these people of Woodbury and find a peaceful resolution to this conflict was really something worthy of the character. It’s also something that changes Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) mindset and alters a lot of the characters and their modes of operation moving into the fourth season.”

Daryl becomes a leader as ‘Dead’ rolls on

Daryl Dixon has been a fan favorite and season 4 promises more from Norman Reedus.

“Daryl Dixon has become a very important character in the show and his character had changed and evolved in very interesting ways over the course of the first three seasons. Having Merle back was always planned to be somewhat temporary thing. We wanted to see how Merle’s return would affect that character and seeing Daryl revert to past behavior — to bad behavior — was something we really wanted to explore. But in the end, Daryl had moved past that character and we wanted to get back to him not having that brother altering his behavior moving forward or influencing him in any way. Merle’s death was really about activating Daryl in an interesting way that will pay off in season four.”

Check out the full interview here.