Scott Gimple Previews The Walking Dead Season 5, Talks Comic Book Changes and Spinoff

Scott Gimple enters his second year as showrunner for The Walking Dead in Season 5, which is actually an accomplishment for a show that has had a surprising amount of turnover at that position during its run. But a new season means new possibilities, and Gimple previewed Season 5 in a recent interview.

The showrunner spoke to Collider about numerous aspects of Season 5. Firstly, he discussed how the new season would differ from Season 4, which spent its first half at the prison and the second half exploring the individual characters:

"[Season 5's] not mirroring [the previous season] completely...The challenge of the show is every eight episodes, it's a whole new show. I will say that there may be some slightly familiar structural turns. But for the most part, it is going to be brand new versions of the comic story."

Of course, the show has deviated from the comics in both major and minor ways during its four seasons thus far, and Gimple addressed the "butterfly effect" of those changes:

"It's funny - back in the day when I started season two, I was all 'We must hem to the comic' and [creator Robert] Kirkman was like, 'Well, let's have some fun. I've done this all before.' I certainly won't abandon iconic things from the comic. I definitely want to stick to the comic as much as possible but that's also impossible with Daryl Dixon and characters that are alive but dead in the comic. There's a butterfly effect. But that's actually an incredibly fun part of the [show]. I would say that even the inventions we have on the show are inspired by the comic."

Finally, Gimple talked about The Walking Dead spinoff, which has been in the works for a while but for which few details exist. [WARNING: COMIC BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD]

"I have little to do with the spinoff... This I do know. It's set in the world of The Walking Dead but from what I understand, it's not like Daryl's cousin or anything... I would never say never [to a crossover between the shows] because if I was a viewer I would say that sounds awesome. But we're doing our own show. I also think a crossover might be tough because it would take a lot of [license] within the comic story. We'll see. When we get to all-out war, who knows? We'll add another faction. It'll be the Saviors and the Hilltop and the 'Spin-offers.'"

Gimple also talks a bit about the endgame of the comic and the show, so be sure to check out the rest of the interview here.

What do you expect in Season 5? Let us know in the comments below.