‘The Walking Dead’ season 4 spoilers: Boss on new change for Andrew Lincoln’s Rick

When “The Walking Dead” season 4 returns to AMC on Sunday, February 9, it will be doing so surrounded in a cloud of mystery. Unless you’re a diehard Robert Kirkman fan and are routinely checking out his comics, you may have no idea as to what is coming up next. Heck, even if you area a reader, there are so many things that morph and change that nothing here is really guaranteed.

But when it comes to what lies ahead with Rick and Carl now that they are completely separate from the rest of the group, there are going to be at least a few scenes that are taken from the comic book. Still, showrunner Scott Gimple (who is probably trying his best to not read some of the stories coming out this week about the show’s original showrunner Frank Darabont) tells TV Guide that there are some developments ahead that will give Andrew Lincoln the opportunity to play something very different than anything else that he has done on the show to date:

“It’s going to hit [Rick] in a way that we haven’t seen before … If it’s just the two of them, [Carl is] going to have to step up quite a bit because circumstances are wildly different and a lot will depend on him in terms of them just surviving. They don’t have an awesome, dual-layer fence and brick buildings to hide behind. They’re out in the world.” 

Many of the other characters are going to experience pretty similar circumstances now that they are completely divided, and most of the protection that they once had is now gone. The mission now has to be multi-layered in that survival is first and foremost, but following that has to be trying to figure out a way to survive. Our suggestion? Find a way to secure an island where you can start over and the zombies can’t get to you … but when you think about resources and whatnot, that’s a lot easier said than done.