Season 9 of The Walking Dead to make plenty of time jumps
By Ryan Stuver
The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohan (Maggie Rhee) confirmed to BUILD that Season 9 will speed things up in more ways than one.
Following Robert Kirkman’s comics, Season 9 of The Walking Dead has been confirmed to take an 18-month time jump.
Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his alliance defeated Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors and the first time jump will occur as soon as Season 9 graces our television screens.
From the Season 9 trailer, we can see some of the notable changes since the conclusion of “All Out War” in Season 8. Negan’s been in jail throughout this time while Rick explains to him how much things have changed for the better without his tyranny. He now sports a shaved head, as does Rick.
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It seems that all of the loss and endless responsibilities Rick has been through has taken its toll on him. He now looks like he’s aged significantly with a huge grey beard like we saw in the Season 8 dream sequences. Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) has a new false eyeball, too.
Oh, and Maggie and Glenn’s baby has been born, baby Herschel!
While the time-jump has been confirmed for some time now, Lauren Cohan revealed to BUILD that it won’t be the only jump that will occur. Going against the usual, almost draggingly slow plot of The Walking Dead, the show’s pace is to rapidly pick-up with quicker plot progression.
"“I was excited, because the time can go very [slow] — we can spend a couple seasons in a really short space of time, as people know, and this season it’s like [boom],”"
There could possibly be another (although much smaller) time jump following whatever happens after episode 6 (Cohan’s last featured episode of the season), or dare I say Andrew Lincoln’s departure.
Cohan also added that the changes in Season 9 aren’t all physical.
"“There’s a bunch of psychological advancement for everybody, too. I mean, it’s just like having the baby and how we’ve had to change as people, and definitely how Maggie has to change in her leadership position. And it’s good. I mean, this is a huge, huge, like, cannonball blast of a season. It’s really, really, really big and we’re excited.”"
The Walking Dead showrunner, Angela Kang, also elaborated on this to EW on what Season 9’s big time-jump will have in store:
"“We’ll explore what happened as man made objects and structures break down. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are changing and crumbling. And we’ll also explore what happens as resources are getting low. There’s a fun Western vibe that has emerged. We are going into a period where a lot of the things that we’ve seen in previous seasons have broken down, so they’ve got these horses and carriages that are being drawn around instead of cars. Things are lit with oil lamps. People are using different kinds of weaponry. There’s a real grittiness to it that I think will be fun and fresh for the viewers.”"
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This will be interesting to watch unfold as the communities haven’t really faced too much adversity regarding low resources. Now that they seem to be plummeting, already high tensions could lead to division and possibly even another war. Maggie, Daryl, and Jesus were already plotting to do something about Rick and Michonne’s decision to spare Negan. Will we see this plot come to fruition?
These big changes are exciting and fresh and I think it’s just what The Walking Dead needs (especially with two of the casts biggest stars on their ways out).
Fans will get their first good look at this new world when The Walking Dead returns October 7 on AMC.