If you thought that “The Walking Dead” has broken down its characters enough with the arrival of Negan last season, you thought wrong. Apparently, the showrunners think that your beloved rebels from Alexandria still need to be broken down even further when the AMC show returns this fall.

More fast paced action

In a Comic Book interview with series creator Robert Kirkman, he said that “The Walking Dead” Season 8 will be focused on delivering more fast paced action as three factions – the Hilltop Colony, Alexandria and The Kingdom band together again Negan and his Saviors.

This will be a welcome change of pace from Season 7 which involved 16 episodes of Rick feeling emasculated and helpless as Negan stripped him of his leadership and everything he had established in Alexandria.

As the Alexandrians found new hope in “The Walking Dead” Season 7 finale when they received help from Hilltop and Ezekiel’s warriors from The Kingdom, it would seem that the union will not go as smoothly as they had hoped. Even though they had a common goal to get rid of Negan’s tyranny, it seems like the leaders of the three factions may butt heads more than once.

"We've spent a lot of time setting these characters up, and now we're going to bash them against each other and see what happens,” Robert Kirkman said.

“This is another continuation of that; this is a very fresh take on the world of 'The Walking Dead,' and we're going to be breaking a lot of new ground this season."

Kirkman confirmed that Season 8 will tackle the All Out War storyline from the graphic novels and said that this will be far different from the show’s approach to Season 7. It can be recalled that beloved characters Glenn and Abraham were killed in the opening salvo of the previous season which resonated with the survivors until the end. By the finale, Sasha also took her own life and tried to take down Negan as a walker.

Glenn’s death casts a shadow

Even though a lot has happened in “The Walking Dead” Season 7, Daryl has not completely gotten over the death of his good friend Glenn.

Glenn’s death weighs heavily on his conscience mainly because his hot-headedness was part of the reason for his friend’s demise.

Showrunner Scott Gimple said that Glenn’s death will influence a lot of Daryl’s choices in the upcoming season. It is also possible that he will feel bonded to Glenn’s baby just as he did with Carol’s daughter Sophia in the earlier seasons of the show.

“The Walking Dead” Season 8 returns to AMC on October 22. The first exciting trailer was released in the recently concluded SDCC. Check it out below.