By now, The Walking Dead comic series and the TV show are almost two different beasts entirely. The show still gets much of its direction from Robert Kirkman’s comics, but characters that have bit the dust in one may still be kicking around in the other. In today’s panel with The Walking Dead creator Kirkman and editor Sean Mackiewicz at New York Comic Con, they chatted about both with moderator and The League actor Jason Mantzoukas.
Kirkman and Mackiewicz were tight-lipped about the big reveal is for The Walking Dead season seven, but heavily implied that fan-favorite Glenn would be safe come Oct 23. “I make no promises. There’s a very good chance that the night of October 23rd you’ll be very happy, and there’s also a really good chance that you’ll be upset… it’ll be one or the other.”
Kirkman also discussed how adapting the comic to the TV series works, saying that “to a certain extent it’s like workshopping the work I did… That’s the most fun thing about the show is working with the writers and having them go ‘oh we could change it and make it like this’ and then I’m like ‘ugh what the hell? Why didn’t I think of that?’”
Warning: comic book spoilers ahead
For fans of the comic, Issue 159 had its own monumental moment that had fans shocked and saddened by the loss of a favorite character. The issue, which was released on Oct 5, revealed that Negan’s beloved bat, Lucille, breaks amid beating Beta during the Whisperer War.
“[The death of Lucille] was planned for a while. Once I had the plan to bring Negan back in the book in the way that I did, and a little bit in planning the origin stories that we’re doing in Image+, it ties in a little bit to that. I thought it’d be a cool thing to do.”
What’s next for Robert Kirkman? Perhaps something not in the horror genre. “I want to branch out. I’ve got three horror shows on air with Outcast and the two Walking Dead shows, and I’d like to do some non-horror stuff” We can’t wait to see what that would be.
The Walking Dead season seven premieres on AMC on Oct 23.