The Walking Dead - Season Four: Trailer

The fourth season of The Walking Dead is now just a couple of months away, and there is now an action packed trailer to satisfy fans of the show, as well as open up speculation concerning what the hell is going to happen next.

I will say first of all that I am a fan of the show who has not read the comic books, therefore any speculation that I make is based only on what the trailer appears to show. 

The finale to the third season saw Rick Grimes’ band of survivors take a whole new community of Woodbury’s citizens into their prison stronghold. If the show’s history is anything to go by I imagine that the majority of these new (expendable) characters will not last very long once the new season begins. I could be wrong about this, but generally the main characters are safe as long as there is a wall of nameless faces to shield behind; when a horde of walkers descends and there aren’t any expendable characters around to take the hit, it is usually a sign that business is about to get serious!

The trailer opens with a group of the survivors preparing to gather supplies from a store. They are shown to be operating efficiently as a unit, lead by Daryl (everyone’s favourite character, surely). There is a moment of bonding between Tyreese and Sasha, in which she demonstrates some keen leadership skills. This bond between the two siblings doesn’t exactly bode well for their characters, as the show has a habit of shattering the status quo within character relationships.

There is an appearance from a new character: Bob Stookey, played by Larry Gilliard Jr. who fans of The Wire will recognise as D’Angelo Barksdale. He is now the second Wire-Alumni to join the cast of The Walking Dead (the first being Chad Coleman, AKA Tyreese). The two never crossed paths on The Wire but in this trailer they are seen sharing scenes together, which should be fun. Bob declares that he wants to “earn [his] keep” and I’m hoping that he genuinely means it, even though the music in the trailer takes on an ominous tone when he says it.

The group are still holding out at the prison, but the trailer seems to suggest that they won’t be there for much longer. After several attacks in the previous season, the once seemingly-impenetrable fortress doesn’t seem like such a safe place to hole up. Carol is seen giving a damage control report to Daryl, Rick is seen desperately attempting to hold up a collapsing chain-link fence, and there are several shots of walkers inside the cell blocks. The verdict is not announced here, but it’s surely only a matter of time before the group leaves the prison for new surroundings.

There are several shots of the survivors looking grief-stricken or shocked, which could literally be in response to anything from a major character death, to a massacre of ‘red-shirt’ characters. One such shot is of Tyreese, and the trailer lingers on this for slightly longer than the others. Could this mean an early exit for Sasha? Only time will tell.

Hershel gives several speeches during the trailer, which certainly illustrate that the stakes have been raised. Things are getting pretty dire for the survivors, and something as simple as taking a drink of water is now supposedly enough to put one’s life at risk. Speaking of Hershel, there are several shots in which he appears to have grown a new leg. This may just be something that needs to be rendered in during post-production, but if he has been able to re-grow his leg then perhaps things aren’t quite so dire for the survivors after all!

There is no sight of The Governor in this trailer, but the threat of his character is still very much present. Several characters declare that the prison has been deliberately assaulted, and Hershel states that during an attack two of their group were killed in cold blood. These could be Governor-related or perhaps just red herrings. David Morrissey is set to return in this upcoming season, but the circumstances of his return are being kept a secret. This should add an extra layer of intrigue to the new season.

At some point in the upcoming season there will be a scene involving Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese and Bob, trapped in a car that becomes surrounded by walkers. Several snippets of this scene are shown, and one particular moment stands out: Tyreese facing insurmountable odds as he’s surrounded on all sides by walkers and attempts to fight them off single handed. At the end of the trailer this same group are seen driving along when a mysterious message plays on the radio, with the word “sanctuary” being decipherable. Whether this scene will occur before or after the car gets overrun by walkers, will remain to be seen.

One final point, I was surprised by how this trailer didn’t show a lot of Rick, instead opting to showcase various other characters a lot more prominently. Rick certainly has his fair share of appearances, but he isn’t placed at the centre of things this time around. This might not actually mean anything, but I did think that it was worth mentioning at least. Maybe Rick will take a less prominent role this season, or perhaps the trailer just didn’t show many of his scenes.

Overall this trailer has got me excited for the next season of The Walking Dead, which is exactly what a trailer should do. I’ll hopefully be able to start writing weekly reviews for the new season once it begins.