“The Walking Dead” just wrapped up its fourth season a few weeks ago, setting a finale record for the series and leaving fans clamoring for more with a crazy cliffhanger. Speaking with MTV, series creator Robert Kirkman says that they’re already well into breaking the story for Season 5 and already have plans for their fifth finale.
“I just turned in the second episode script for season five, and all the writers are hard at work on their individual episodes. We’re pretty much halfway through the fifth season, script-wise. And we’ve already nailed down what our finale is, and what our overall arc of the season is. The back half of the season is taking shape very quickly, and we’ll have all the scripts written by the summer…It’s always interesting the way these things overlap. By the time people have seen the entirety of the season, we’re already pretty much done with the writing on the first half of the next season. We’re always quite a bit ahead. We’ll be rolling cameras in May, so I’m very excited about that.”
Kirkman also spoke about the spin-off show, which is said to be a “companion series” to the original.
“As far as the spin-off goes, I’m actively working with [Showrunner] Dave Erickson on that, and we know when our proposed release date is — although I can’t tell you that, obviously. We’re working towards that show, and it’s gonna be awesome.”
The subject of the character Negan from the comics was also brought up, whom Kirkman says they are planning to introduce to the series.
“As far as Negan casting goes, Scott (Gimple, showrunner) and I are always talking about who we would put in that, it’s definitely on our minds, and there are definitely a lot of candidates. But I wouldn’t expect Negan too terribly soon, although he is definitely in the plan. It’s a 99% lock that he’s going to be in the show eventually, so be on the lookout for that.”
Season 5 of “The Walking Dead” will debut on AMC on Sundays this fall.
