For nine seasons, The Walking Dead has been known for its unrelenting grim tone as the survivors attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse and each other by whatever means necessary.
As the series prepares to return on AMC for its tenth season, showrunner Angela Kang hints that there will be additional lighter moments for the characters to balance the overall tone, without compromising the tension and horror the popular Image Comics adaptation is known for.
"There’s a certain amount of fun even though there’s this really, really tense and scary thing that is ramping up with our people," explained Kang in an interview with TVLine. "That’s something that we really wanted to explore with our people — a way to blow off steam. We’re all human at the end of the day, and you can’t always be living in a dark, nihilistic state. That’s really difficult. So for our people to be able to have these lighter moments helps them — and it helps the actors, too — deal with the seriousness of everything else that’s happening."
Season 10 will feature a small time jump as the survivor communities of Alexandria and Hilltop face strict borders imposed on them by the villainous faction of survivors known as Whisperers. With tensions running high between and within the various factions, the fragile peace is sure to break into a new war.
AMC's The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Nadia Hilker, Dan Fogler, Angel Theory, Lauren Ridloff and Eleanor Matsuura. The series returns for Season 10 on Oct. 6.