The Walking Dead Season 5 Spoilers: Robert Kirkman Says Season Closely Follows Comics

The Walking Dead has, by design, made some major departures from Robert Kirkman's comic book in its first four seasons. It's almost as if the show is a remixed edition of the book. But Kirkman claimed in a recent interview that the current Season 5, which got off to a fast start, will stick very closely to the source material.

"It's what we've been doing with The Walking Dead comic from day one," he told IGN. "You've made people love and know and identify with these characters -- and then you kill them. Those deaths don't matter if you're not invested in the characters. Season 5 is, more than any other season, following the comics very closely. There's more comic book moments being adapted than there have been in any previous season, so there's a lot of cool stuff for the comic fans coming up and a lot of stuff they will recognize, but of course we'll be doing some stuff in different ways...There are a lot of cool key moments that come directly from the comics."

We've seen such moments already in Season 5, such as the "tainted meat" scene and the slaughtering of the Hunters. But the overarching mission to get to Washington, D.C. is another key plot point on which this season focuses.

"The biggest thing for Season 5 is that the story completely changes...There's a mission to this season -- this mission of getting to Washington and if there's a cure there and if there's infrastructure there and security there," Kirkman said. "What is it that is actually in Washington? I think that having our characters suddenly be driven with a goal that they can actually accomplish is changing how we tell stories in a big way. The episodes of this season are going to feel a bit different than how the show's felt before."

What do you make of Kirkman's remarks? Let us know in the comments section.