With the Season 9 finale premiering last night on AMC, The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang is already actively working on the premiere for this October's Season 10.
This past season had been Kang's first as the longrunning Image Comics adaptation's showrunner, promoted after writing for the series for the past several years. Under Kang, the series had returns to its horror roots with the introduction of the brutal Whisperers, while undergoing a six-year time jump.
In an interview following the Season 9 finale, Kang confirmed another time jump will take place going into Season 10 as she plans for the premiere to outdo the Season 9 finale's ambitious winter set piece.
"Things are going to pick up with a little bit more of a time passage, not a giant one like we’ve had, but winter will be over and people will be going to be in a different emotional space," Kang confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "There’s other stuff in [the Season 10 premiere] where I’m like, I must be psychotic, because let’s just do more stuff we’ve never done on this show that feels impossible. That’s part of the fun of the show."
Despite the change in time and season, the Whisperers will remain a major threat going into Season 10, with Kang also hinting the mysterious voice overheard on a radio in the final moments of the finale will play a role in the upcoming season.
"There are some problems to be worked out with the Whisperers, these crazy neighbors that come in and out and cause chaos in their world," Kang continued. "That’s something to play out, and obviously there will be other storylines that are kind of intersecting with all of this. It’s always fun to have more than one thing going on at once. We’ll find out how this radio voice, what they have to do with our people and their world.
The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Alanna Masterson, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Nadia Hilker, Dan Fogler, Angel Theory, Lauren Ridloff and Eleanor Matsuura. The series returns for its tenth season on AMC sometime this October.