With its Season 8 premiere date revealed earlier this week, “The Walking Dead’s” Comic-Con panel this year opened Thursday with a tribute to fatally injured stuntman John Bernecker and a trailer for the upcoming Season 8. The new season debuts on October 22 with the AMC blockbuster’s 100th episode
“John passed away last week after he was injured doing something he loved,” said showrunner Scott M. Gimple at the beginning of the panel in a packed Hall H. “He helped make movies and shows for people like everyone in this room,’ he added of Bernecker, who died in an accident on “TWD’s” set on July 12. “He was living his dream,” Gimple concluded.
Friday’s panel followed spin-off “Fear The Walking Dead’s panel that began with a moment of silence in Hall H for Bernecker. Production on “TWD’s” eighth season halted on July 12 right after the accident and resumed on July 17 in Georgia.
After the tribute to Bernecker, “TWD” unveiled a new trailer for Season 8.
“I hope you got your s—-n’ pants on,” we hear villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) warning a captured Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), the trailer opens. Then, with a percussion soundtrack we see pensive shots of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), the rest of the Survivors and the Kingdom getting ready for a battle. That bigger world is ours by right,” Grimes tells his colleagues in a call to arms. “We’ve already won!,” he screams as the crowd in Hall H erupted in cheers. Cheers that got louder when a shot of Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) on his motorcycle was shown.
“I think I counted six explosions in the trailer alone,” joked EP Robert Kirkman of what he called an “action-packed” Season 8.
Lincoln, Morgan and Reedus were all on the SDCC 2017 panel along with Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Seth Gilliam, Alanna Masterson, Khary Payton and Chandler Riggs. They were joined by EPs Gake Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero, David Alpert, Kirkman and Gimple.
In what was a relatively low key panel for TWD, EPs Nicotero and Kirkman also praised the recently deceased George Romero, who helmed such zombie game changers as “Night Of the Living Dead.”
Warning: Explicit Language