New "Walking Dead' Showrunner Glen Mazarra Talks Season 2

[JamesG]

New "Walking Dead" Showrunner Talks Season Two
Posted by Samuel Zimmerman
Aug 30, 2011


After the big shake-up of Frank Darabont being fired from "The Walking Dead", new show runner Glen Mazarra has spoken up about what we can expect from Season 2.

Coming from AMC's weekly "Dispatches From The Set," Mazarra discussed his contributions to this season, as well as what's in store on Hershel's farm.





On joining the writing staff and continuing Darabont's course:

Well, last year I wasn't available to staff Season 1. So I was offered a freelance, and really just enjoyed it. I saw what Frank's intention was with the show and sort of broke the story and wrote to fulfill that. So then this year he brought me on to staff and we hired a great writing staff and we really worked out the season arc. So a lot of it is just following that road map.

There will certainly be surprises and deviations from that, but I think for the most part, the characters' journeys were discussed in depth at the beginning of the season. What's been surprising is that in the graphic novel the story that takes place on Hershel's farm is really only a few issues.

We've been able to mine that for many episodes, and we're very excited about the depth to which we're able to push the characters, the different dynamics that we're able to explore.






On Hershel's farm:

Our approach to our group of survivors when they reach Hershel's farm is that they are a plague unto themselves. Nothing goes right for Hershel once Rick and his band show up. They make the zombie apocalypse look like kids in a candy story.

What's interesting is that if this was a show solely about Hershel, Rick and his band would really be the antagonists. And that's been really surprising because every action that Rick and his band take is completely logical, but you'll certainly sympathize with Hershel.





On keeping the show tense:

Keep the zombies scary. Zombies move slow and our guys have guns. So I have to make sure that our band is always threatened, that they're panicked.

For this show to be scary, we need to be convinced that the zombies are winning. So we really push ourselves as writers to make sure that we are not playing the same gags over and over. That every zombie feels unique, they feel different, that we want each encounter with a zombie to be memorable and not just throwing in a zombie for the sake of throwing in a cheap thrill.

I feel that we have to make sure our characters are always in jeopardy.



And finally, it looks like he shares a huge aspiration with Darabont, as he tells AMC, "I am dying to meet the Governor."



"The Walking Dead" returns Sunday, October 16 at 9 p.m.


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