'The Walking Dead' Season 9 Trailer Reminds Us That Peace Never Lasts
And that Rick desperately needed a haircut last season.
by Corey PlanteIf Negan was right about one thing through the last few seasons of The Walking Dead, it’s that human nature is inherently quarrelsome. In other words: peace never lasts. Unsurprisingly, he’s still spewing the same vitriol to Rick Grimes in the newly released trailer for The Walking Dead Season 9.
During a Friday panel at San Diego Comic-Con for The Walking Dead, AMC released a lengthy Season 9 trailer to set the tone. Following the end of the “all out war” against Negan, the show jumps forward in time while the many surviving groups adapt to rebuilding civilization.
The trailer opens on Rick descending into some kind of cell to talk to an imprisoned Negan, and the scene serves to frame the entire trailer. Despite this largely being a time of peace, discord begins to erupt between the factions of survivors.
One major point of contention presented in the trailer sees Maggie attempt to usurp Rick’s leadership position, which follows through on her ominous secret meeting at the end of Season 8 and implies she wanted to punish Rick in some way for letting Negan live.
Rick at the end of 'The Walking Dead' Season 8 when he chose to spare Negan's life.
This growing conflict will coincide with Andrew Lincolns departure from the show.
Word first circulated back in May that Season 9 would be actor Andrew Lincoln’s last time portraying The Walking Dead protagonist Rick Grimes, and, on Thursday, comic book creator and the series’ executive producer Robert Kirkman confirmed as much.
On Friday, Kirkman further commented on how Lincoln’s exit from the show will change everything, saying, “It does make the difference between the comic and the show more pronounced.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lauren Cohan — who plays Maggie — will also only star in six episodes of the upcoming season before making her own departure.
Angela Kang, promoted from writer and producer to showrunner with Season 9, has said the new season will focus on “what it means to have a civilization.”
As always, The Walking Dead will dramatize that through the lens of human nature being fundamentally chaotic, corruptible, and inherently violent.
The Walking Dead Season 9 will premiere on AMC on Sunday, October 7 at 9 p.m. Eastern.
