The Walking Dead Season 8 News: EP Admits Getting Emotional Over Midseason Premiere
The final "The Walking Dead" episode that will feature Chandler Riggs' character Carl Grimes will get an extended run.
According to reports, the midseason premiere of "The Walking Dead" will be highly emotional as it bid its final goodbye to Rick Grimes' (Andrew Lincoln) son. This is why it will run for 82 minutes instead of the usual one-hour airing.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Greg Nicotero revealed that the upcoming episode will be a highly dramatic one. "I think it's one of our most powerful episodes that we've ever produced," Nicotero stated. "When I watched the first cut of this episode, tears were coming out of my eyes 20 minutes into it."
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Nicotero also compared the upcoming episode to season 5's "What Happened and What's Going On," when another fan-favorite character Tyreese (Chad Coleman) was bitten by the undead at the start of the episode and his last moments alive were shown throughout the entire hour. According to the executive producer, both episodes could be considered the same since the characters will be given time to process what happened.
He also shared that he was not emotional when they were filming Riggs' final episode of the series, but his reaction came in late after the episode had been shot. "I was so wrapped up with the technique of shooting it and making sure I got all the beats and all the character moments, that it didn't really hit me until afterwards," he also said.
Also, Nicotero promised that the upcoming midseason premiere for season 8 is something to look forward to even if the fans of the post-apocalyptic zombie drama were complaining about Carl's death. "I really do believe that a lot of people will put those feelings aside when they watch this episode because they're really going to get an opportunity to make some peace with it," the executive producer also stated.
The midseason premiere of "The Walking Dead" season 8 will be released by AMC on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 10 p.m. EDT.
