The Walking Dead Season 8: Showrunner teases major time jump and flashback storytelling

The Walking Dead season 8 premiere will mark the 100th episode of the AMC zombie thriller and after a fairly dull season, fans are expecting a fast–paced story line that will bring the show back to life. But it seems the producers and creators have acknowledged fans' expectation as showrunner Scott M. Gimple has teased a massive time jump in the series.

The series is based on Robert Kirkman's graphic novel of the same name. Though the creators try to tweak the original plot from the novel, major plot point almost remains the same. "For the people who read the comics, they're going to be expecting this. We're doing the book, we do all sorts of variations on it, and then we do things that are inspired by it and then we change things up with a remix," Gimple told Hollywood Reporter.

The seventh season started with a bang by featuring the gore-filled death scene of Glenn and Abe but the lack of storytelling and a compelling script left most of the fans disappointed. Keeping the complaints in mind, the showrunner hinted at a two-year time jump as the show returns and there will be plenty of flashbacks to generate interest.

"I will say there are things that happen in that time jump that is referred to that are super interesting. And thus we might see some of that stuff; it might not be the same sort of jump, or we'll do that two to five years in real time," he added.

However, Andrew Lincoln, who plays the shoe protagonist Rick Grimes in the series, thinks that the show will begin right after where it left off. In season 7 finale, the Kingdom and the Hilltop attacked Negan and his army in a bid to save Rick and his Alexandrian family from imminent death. The Savior leader fled the scene but promised to return back for revenge.

Seeing the massive army, Negan fled but according to Andrew, the 100<sup>th episode may begin with the groups planning for the counter attacks. "[Negan] said, 'Boys, we're going to war,' or something like that. I mean I think that - I don't think we're that literal, but I think that there's a very strong chance that we're going to pick up where we left off. I don't think that that's breaking news," Lincoln told Comic Book.