The Walking Dead season 9 showrunner teases 'western vibe' as new image released

'We’re really looking at the start of a new chapter of the show'

The Walking Dead soon returns, the upcoming ninth season set to see Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan), along with showrunner Scott M Gimple, depart the series.

Despite Daryl (Norma Reedus) taking over as lead, many fans have been left worrying about the show’s future. Replacement showrunner Angela Kang - who previously acted as story editor, before being bumped up to producer and then executive producer – has since revealed some details, teasing further change to come.

“We’re really looking at the start of a new chapter of the show,” Kang told EW. The ninth season, we already know, will start many months after the was with Negan concluded.

“We’ll explore what happened as man made objects and structures break down,” she continued. “Infrastructure like roads and bridges are changing and crumbling. And we’ll also explore what happens as resources are getting low.”

The breakdown has already been demonstrated in a poster, revealed by AMC earlier this week, and a new image which sees Michonne (Danai Gurira) leading a pack of survivors while riding a horse.

“There’s a fun Western vibe that has emerged,” Kang added. ”We are going into a period where a lot of the things that we’ve seen in previous seasons have broken down, so they’ve got these horses and carriages that are being drawn around instead of cars. Things are lit with oil lamps. People are using different kinds of weaponry. There’s a real grittiness to it that I think will be fun and fresh for the viewers.”

Earlier this week, the first official poster for the ninth season was released by AMC, featuring Rick Grimes front-and-centre and hinting at the show's future.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC and FOX in October.