Winter is Coming… To AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’?
For fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead, one thing besides the hordes of undead walkers is always noticeable – the constant heat. All the characters can be seen with constant sweat marks and the clothes they wear are a pretty good indicator that it is summer. The Walking Dead has been mostly set in Georgia, a place that maintains sunny weather for most of the year and swelters during AMC’s filming schedule of spring through to fall. But now the crew has moved to Alexandria which presents a technical issue AMC could mostly ignore up until now: Winter.
While HBO’s Game of Thrones is constantly bemoaning the fact “winter is coming”, for the characters in The Walking Dead, there has been barely a mention in relation to the weather. But now that they are in a climate that is cooler than Georgia and does actually get snow in winter, how will the crew handle it? Especially since The Walking Dead is still filming in Georgia and pretending it is Alexandria? Walking Dead showrunner, Scott M. Gimple has actually thought long and hard about. As he told Entertainment Weekly, it is something that can easily be addressed in the comic book series the show is based on, but filming in the Georgia heat presents more of an issue.
“It’s a hard one and one that we struggle with. In the comics, the seasons have been represented — not all the time, but there’s been some really notable moments in the snow and even in autumn really. That’s a challenge for us, we’re thinking about it and figuring it out. Nothing could be further from winter than our shooting schedule. That’s a challenge, and there are certain things we balance. Just being able to make the show is a challenge. These are all little feature films every week, and we push it to the limit. We don’t want to use white cornflakes [to double as snow] if we don’t have to. It’s a challenge, and we’re gonna see what we can do. It’s something we struggle with.”
The Walking Dead is set in a universe that has never been presented with the zombie genre, so perhaps AMC can just ignore the seasons altogether? If the characters have never come across the concept of the undead, then it is not such a hard stretch for fans to also image that the universe they reside in does not have changing seasons either. Although, with the mention that climatic differences between The Walking Dead and its new companion series, Fear The Walking Dead affecting the walkers, it seems unlikely that there is no winter in this universe. Or perhaps the show could take a leaf out of Game of Thrones’ book and have extended seasons that can run on for years and years before changing? Either way, it seems unlikely that Walking Dead fans will be hearing Rick bemoaning the fact “winter is coming” any time soon.
The Walking Dead will return for season 6 on Sunday October 11, 2015 on AMC.
What do you think, should AMC bring winter to The Walking Dead or should they ignore the seasons altogether? Let us know what you think by commenting below!
[Image credit: AMC]
