‘The Walking Dead’ season 4: Glen Mazzara gives advice, talks character deaths

While Glen Mazzara may at this point be by and large done with “The Walking Dead,” there is still one final order of business to contend with: Awards season. Season 3 is going to be the focus of the upcoming Primetime Emmy Awards campaign, and it has an outside chance at scoring some love since it was creatively and emotionally the strongest overall product that the series has produced thus far.

So what does the man behind this season have to say about some of its most-shocking moments? In chatting to The Hollywood Reporter in one of those interviews that is effectively a giant “for your consideration” spot, Mazzara explains that it was extremely important to him to demonstrate through Andrea’s demise in particular that with every big move comes a sacrifice, and such gambles that could polarize an audience are worth taking for your story:

“…I thought it was important that we always show that no one is safe. It’s also important to show the effect that these deaths have on our other characters. Andrea’s death, for example, I knew Rick was going to finally open up the gates of the prison after a season in which he’s trying to hide away from the world and lock everybody away and keep them safe. He realizes what that means — that our group is now becoming isolated and will be picked off, that his own son is on the road to becoming the Governor, so he has to open up the gates and let other people in and be compassionate. At the end of the finale, he brings in these women, children and elderly people and the group is going to transform. There needed to be a blood sacrifice for that, and there had to be a price that was paid. Andrea paying that price was important. She is unable to re-enter the group. In a way, a lot of what she did was bring the two groups together. But she’s never able to enter the prison and be reunited in a full way with Rick’s group. That was an ultimate sacrifice that was worthy of the season finale.”

Mazzara also offered a tiny piece of advice to new showrunner Scott M. Gimple, who is already hard at work on the show’s fourth season: To write “what he believes in.” hmmm… makes us wonder why Mazzara really left the show.

Do you agree with us that season 3 was the best, and that Mazzara is going to be a very tough guy to replace? If you want to also check out some more video footage of a certain “Walking Dead” star on a comedy show, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: AMC