NYCC: In what perhaps not surprisingly turned out to be the biggest panel of New York Comic Con this weekend, AMC brought its upcoming horror series The Walking Dead to the IGN Theater. It was standing room only as writer-director-executive producer Frank Darabont debuted exclusive new footage from the comic-book adaptation. Read on for our impressions...
IGN's Eric Moro moderated the panel, which featured Darabont, the creator of the comic Robert Kirkman, executive-producer Gale Anne Hurd, and castmembers Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, Steven Yeun and Norman Reedus.
But first, the footage! After a short bit of series highlights, six and a half minutes from episode two were screened. It begins with a high wide shot looking directly down on a dead (ahem) city street. As the camera slowly zooms in, we can see that zombies are everywhere -- and more specifically, they're surrounding a wrecked tank. We cut inside, where our hero Rick Grimes is trapped. He's talking to someone on a radio. It's Glenn -- who fans of the comic of course know and love. Glenn is coaching him through his escape. Rick, he says, has to make a run for it, especially now while Rick's fallen horse is causing a feeding frenzy among some of the zombies and distracting them. Rick loads his weapons, including a grenade, and makes a run for it.
As soon as he leaves the tank, a zombie is waiting for him -- which he promptly smashes in the mouth, causing a huge gash. He runs, shooting several undead as he goes, and suddenly is grabbed by Glenn who reaches out from an alleyway. (The crowd cheered at Glenn's arrival.) As the zombies groan, they follow the pair down the alley -- and the shambling things are moving pretty fast. Not Zack Snyder fast, but fast enough. Rick and Glenn climb a fire escape, and as the zombies amass in the alley, Glenn says, "Are you the sheriff, come here to clean up the town? Whatever. You're still a dumb ass." They introduce themselves to one another, and the Comic Con crowd cheered again. As the zombies swarm like ants below, the two run across the rooftop and climb down into another building. Two roamers are waiting for them, but a pair of humans in body armor run out and smash the ghouls' brains in. There are other humans there -- some we recognize from the comic, some we don't. One we do recognize is Andrea, who pulls a gun on Rick and yells, "We're dead because of this stupid a$$hole." Zombies claw at the windows and as they start to crack, the clip ends…
Clip two featured more of the ensemble cast. We're at the camp site where our main characters live, just outside the city. Dale's there. Rick's wife Lori is doing laundry. Rick's old partner Shane is with Rick and Lori's son Carl, teaching him how to make a rope knot. One of the women in the camp is pacing around -- "It's late and they should've been back by now," she says. Suddenly a radio signal comes in. It's the humans from the previous scene, stuck in the building. They're trapped. Shane doesn't want to go after them -- he says it's not safe. But Andrea's sister protests. And the clip ends.
It's notable that much of this action is similar to the events of the early issues of the comic, but not exactly the same. Some of the characters seem to be new, while we can recognize a lot of others. The zombies are scary and overwhelming. Their groans, heard in unison when they group together, are pretty eerie. And their makeup effects look perfect, tracking with both the comic as well as what we've seen in the George Romero zombie films which obviously are a big inspiration here.
If you're a fan of the comic, it's strange seeing these characters come to life. (And since Kirkman is famous for killing so many of his castmembers off, it's strange in another way too to see them up and about again.) But already, just in these brief minutes of footage, they feel like they really are Rick and Glenn and the rest.
Another thing -- this show doesn't seem to be pulling any punches in the gore department. Just in these clips alone we saw zombies getting shot in the head, zombies getting their skulls smashed in, and zombies getting their faces gashed open.
We'll have more from the panel later, but for now suffice to say that The Walking Dead looks sweet.
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