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Frank Darabont has promised that the second season of The Walking Dead will raise the stakes for the show's characters. In an official interview, Darabont explained: "My hope is that if we're lucky enough to be in the long run on a show like this, we'll be able to make the stakes as high as we can. I think that's just going to make the viewing experience more compelling for the audience." He added: "I want the [viewers] to feel uncertain when they tune in." The showrunner also insisted that the next series will be as visually spectacular as the initial six episodes. "We're making a movie[-style show] and whatever we need to have that sense of scale and quality is what we're going to do," he said.

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Im Schnitt sahen über vier Millionen US-Zuschauer bei jeder Folge der Comicumsetzung The Walking Dead zu, um die neuesten Geschehnisse um Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) verfolgen zu können. Seit dem Serienfinale im vergangenen Dezember warten Anhänger von Comic und Serie nun auf die zweite Staffel, welche im Gegensatz zur ersten gleich dreizehn Episoden umfassen soll. Doch wann erfolgt die Premiere? Offiziell für Oktober 2011 angekündigt, sprach Schauspieler Bryan Cranston, bekannt aus Breaking Bad, nun von einem verfrühten Start: "AMC hat beschlossen, dass sie uns [Breaking Bad] und Mad Men im Juli positionieren. Ich glaube, auch Walking Dead soll auf Juli vorverlegt werden, um der starken Konkurrenz im Herbst entgehen zu können." Eine offizielle Bestätigung des amerikanischen Pay TV-Sender steht zum aktuellen Zeitpunkt allerdings noch aus. Hierzulande lief die Umsetzung der Robert Kirkman Vorlage bei FOX.

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Jeffrey DeMunn discusses his role as Frank Darabont's "good luck charm," sees common ground between The Walking Dead and Stephen King, and doles out survival tips for surviving the apocalypse.

Q: You've been in nearly every Frank Darabont project. Can he still surprise you?

A: At this point I don't think it's so much surprises as it is that he keeps coming up with such amazing groups of people. I know that when I work with Frank that he will have assembled not just a whole bunch of talent, but a whole bunch of really cooperative people.

Q: Darabont calls you his good luck charm. Do you feel that way too?

A: He's just a wonderful friend and colleague and I love working with him. Yeah, I had heard that and he'd told me that, and I suppose we've been lucky for each other. It's been a great relationship.

Q: What was it like working with walkers daily?

A: You know I ended up loving it... I never said, "Gee I hope some day I get to do a show with zombies." But it is a genre I have always enjoyed watching and it turned out to be absolutely fabulous.

Q: Since Atlanta was so hot during the shoot, were you glad Dale always wore a sun hat?

A: I wasn't sorry about that. The heat was interesting because in the end I think it was a unifying force. Everybody was in it; there wasn't a person there that wasn't in this incredible heat. We looked after each other.

Q: You and Laurie Holden worked together on The Mist and The Majestic. Did those previous experiences help your chemistry?

A: Yeah, it's nice. We trust each other, we know each other. That's always a good thing.

Q: You've done a few Stephen King adaptations. Are there similarities between The Walking Dead and Stephen King?

A: When you started asking that I immediately thought of Storm of the Century a little bit. I suppose there is some similarity there -- like there is this force that you really can't do much about.

Q: Got any post-apocalyptic advice you'd like to share?

A: Twelve gauge.

Q: Is that your weapon of choice?

A: If I could use any weapon that's the one that I would probably grab. The one I am using is a Remington, which is roughly like a thirty-aught-six.

Q: And for your stealthy melee weapon?

A: I am definitely in favor of the axe.

Q: That's what you used in Episode 3, against a walker who was played by Special FX Make-Up Designer Greg Nicotero.

A: Man that guy, I tell you, he gave his all to that, I can't believe it. He's such a creative talent. And then to let himself be the victim on that one, but he chose that. He really wanted it to be good and to work well. He knew that he could bring that to it and geez, he took a beating.

Q: You chopped off his head! Were you afraid of missing by a few inches and actually hurting him?

A: Oh yeah! Granted when push came to shove that wasn't a standard axe that I was taking toward his neck, but it still had weight and heft to it. And you're going through the back of someone's neck which is about as vulnerable a spot as it could be. I had to be really careful. We practiced it, and they kept saying, "Well no that's not it, a little more."

Q: What was it like shooting the camp attack scene?

A: The first day that I was around [the walkers], I remember coming around the corner of one of the trailers and it just stunned me, this creature that was standing there. And then the evening that we shot scene where the camp is threatened, we had to wait until dark and we were all just up on the little mountain top there hanging out, chatting and waiting. Then the vans arrived and out came about 40 or 45 of these creatures in a bunch. I think they had been told to be quiet when they got to the set, because they silently made their way right down the middle of the road. Everyone just parted and got out of the way while this crowd of creatures got to where they were supposed to be.

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The Special Effects Make-Up Artist for Romero's Day of the Dead and Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds describes getting the extras pumped in The Walking Dead and sizing up potential zombies over dinner.

Q: You've been creating zombies for George Romero for years. What made you want to tackle The Walking Dead?

A: I've been best friends with Frank Darabont since before he directed The Shawshank Redemption, and we share a similar interest and nostalgic devotion to George Romero and Night of the Living Dead. We started talking about this project probably three or four years ago, when Frank was talking about wanting to do something different with zombies, and what we could do to make these guys look fresh and original. And from then on, it's just been like, Hey man! We get to create zombies!

Q: How do these zombies differ from the ones you created for Romero?

A: We used the graphic novel certainly as inspiration. We've always tried to push the envelope, and because I've done so many other projects it's always one of those things where you finish a movie and go, "Oh man next time I know how we can make it better. And after that I know how we can make it even better than that." We've taken everything that we've learned on all these other projects, and applied them in terms of using new materials and new techniques - even something as simple as a zombie getting shot in the head: We really sat down and worked through the best way to make that look realistic and practical.

Q: What was your solution?

A: Well in the '70s they just put squibs on extras' heads and detonated them. Then you got to the point where if you had to use explosive squibs it could only be on a stunt person. But for The Walking Dead, we're going for a very specific physical type: Every zombie that we see is really tall and really thin and really gaunt looking. One of the story points is that these characters have been dead for so long that they're starving, and will eat virtually anything. They'll eat a horse, they'll eat a rat. So we built this self-contained head-hit rig that runs off compressed air. You fill a tube with blood, and then you use a foot pump to get a really great blood spray. You can clip it on to anybody that you want, and then all of a sudden you have instantaneous head wound.

Q: One of the more infamous scenes in the comic is when the zombies do in fact eat a horse. What was that like to shoot?

A: It's almost like a Piranha attack - it really was like a feeding frenzy. We had thirty extras leaning over this prosthetic horse that we created, and they started ripping its insides and its entrails out and going crazy. They were sticking their heads in it and their hands in it. I kind of whipped them into a little bit of a frenzy before we shot, and it was funny because at one point I walked over to Frank and I'm like, "Dude, these guys are so amped up you better shoot this quick before they tear the horse apart!"

Q: What did you do to get them so pumped?

A: They saw me loading the horse. We made all these silicone guts and entrails and organs. So I came over with this big giant box of entrails and a big giant bucket of blood and I started soaking everything and stuffing all of it inside the abdomen of the horse. And literally, the more stuff I put in there, the more excited they were to reach in and start pulling it out. So by the time they had seen everything loaded and the stomach was all filled and there was blood on it, it was like "Ready. 3, 2, 1. Go!" Instantaneous gore.

Q: Frank described how hot it's been in Atlanta. How does that affect your make-up?

A: The make-ups that we're doing are relatively bulletproof. But when people start sweating or rubbing their necks, you do have to go in and touch people up. It's tricky. I can't remember when I've worked under these circumstances, especially shooting in the daytime. Most zombie shows like this, they're shot at night. So to have a zombie TV series in broad daylight, running down Peachtree Avenue in downtown Atlanta, it's challenging. Everything has to stand up to pretty tough scrutiny.

Q: We featured a gallery of concept sketches showing a zombie decompose. Will the zombies go through that change as the series progresses?

A: One conversation that Frank and I had at the beginning of our prep was, How far do I take them... We want to be able to show the degradation of these zombies over time. So some zombie make-ups are a little more fresh-looking, some are a little more decomposed looking. This is the first time we've ever actually gone through and hand-picked the actual zombies that will be featured. It's one thing to glue prosthetics on somebody's face, but if you have somebody who's got a lot of character and they just have a really great structure to their face, it's great. We'll go to dinner and a waitress will go by, and we're like, "Man, she'd be a great zombie."

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Andrew Lincoln has suggested that season two of The Walking Dead could be even darker in tone. The actor told E! Online that he is keen to focus on the elements that made the show's initial six-part run a success.

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"More sweat, more blood, more tears, more fears - just bring it!" he said. "I think we can go darker and we found that there are strengths to the show and hopefully we can focus on that."

Lincoln, who plays former sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, previously admitted that he wants new episodes of The Walking Dead to shock viewers. Lincoln's co-star Sarah Wayne Callies, who plays his on-screen wife Lori Grimes, agreed that the series now has the potential to explore darker territory.

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"The success of the show gives us the opportunity to go darker than we have before," she suggested. "[We can] push the envelope, go further and make it even more dangerous."

Furthermore Callies some dropped hints about the show's second season. The actress told TV Guide that the new 13-part run will focus on the repercussions of Dr. Jenner's whispered words to Rick (Andrew Lincoln).

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"Jenner took blood work, and it's possible maybe he told Rick something about what he saw in his wife's blood work," she speculated. "I'm kind of basing that on the comic [on which the show is based]. I don't know."

She added that keeping the secret will put further strain on Rick and Lori's relationship.

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"It becomes another secret that Rick is going to keep or not keep," she explained. "[It adds to] the power of what we say to each other and what we hold from one another. I think we all feel the burden of our secrets and we all try to protect each other."

Callies also admitted that she did not expect to win the part of Lori when she originally auditioned.

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"I read the script and went in to audition, then I went to my car and started crying," she confessed. "I thought I'd never get this and then they cast me. I've been happy ever since."

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Did you read The Walking Dead as a comic book?

Not before the show. Somebody had told me about it - they were talking about the zombie apocalypse and how it should be made into a series, but I didn’t get to read it until after I booked the show. Then I was like, “Oh, yeah! This is awesome!”

And 'Vatos' was an episode not in the comic structure, written for TV?

Yeah, Robert Kirkmann wrote it, it’s one of the ones that he wrote, but Frank Darabont was actually the one who created the character of Guillermo.

I see that Guillermo is coming back in season two...?

I can’t say! I mean, I would love to tell you, but they are still doing writes and negotiating contracts. I’m not at liberty to say. But that was my first appearance - and it looks good!

I heard there was some question on whether the writers would be returning for season two.

Well, the series was such a strong initial hit, I think they are just focused on getting the best writers possible. And there has been some talk out there of going freelance. There are just some really great writers out there, that don’t even have the opportunity...hat have great stories, and don’t really get a chance. Frank [Darabont] has a way to make that work out for them, and give them an opportunity, so … Obviously it’s a fan-based show. The fans make it what it is, and I’m sure there are tons of fans who are also writers themselves, who have some great ideas. And are in the business, some of them are. And leave it to Frank to give them an opportunity! I’m not saying that is what is going to happen, but that’s what the talk is around town. So I’m pretty excited about the scripts that are coming out! Of course they are watching everything closely, Frank and Robert [Kirkman].

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During NATPE, the producer explained the series' success in the U.S. and abroad: "And zombies can be fun." Producer Gale Anne Hurd, who is billed here at NATPE as the queen of sci-fi, thinks zombies are just what's needed to offset today's real-life anxieties.

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"Given the fears in the world today, a zombie apocalypse series was less scary than, say, the financial meltdown or a disease outbreak," she half-joked to an audience of sci-fi fans and business execs in Miami on Tuesday.

Hurd was speaking during a Q&A at the NATPE confab in which she talked about what made the series The Walking Dead work and why zombies, as clumsy and unsexy as they are, have so caught on worldwide.

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"And zombies can be fun," Hurd said.

That's how she explained the unexpected success of Dead not just on cabler AMC Stateside but around the world on Fox Intl Channels and transmedia outlets.

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As for getting zombie extras to do their thing properly, "We even now have a zombie college which trains folks to walk the walk." (Zombie invasions accompanied the launch of the show in 20 cities worldwide. Same plan next Halloween.) "Also," Hurd opined, "I think the idea of the undead exists across cultures and all these problems are on everyone's minds. The show essentially examines how humans will survive such a disaster and what is the right thing for humans to do in such a situation."

Asked if there was any resistance among advertisers to the level of violence and gore in the series, Hurd said advertisers had no real problems.

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"AMC never gave us a note to tone anything down. An airline even approached us about product placement -- but we just couldn't make that work with our plot!"

Another reason for the success of the show was pre-production -- which Hurd said she learned the importance of from her stint working years ago for Roger Corman.

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For one thing, she pointed out, "We learned how bad zombie makeup looked in HD so we opted to shoot in super 16."

Work on Season 2 begins this spring in Atlanta and there will be some new twists, Hurd added. Writer Robert Kirkman has done almost 80 issues of the graphic novel on which the series is based but there are some additional characters and other changes for the TV series.

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"He and we hope it's "the series that never ends," Hurd said.

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This week Gale Anne Hurd gives some Season 2 scoops to ScreenJunkies while the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper chooses The Walking Dead as one of its favorite Stateside shows.

• Gale Anne Hurd shares Season 2 tidbits with ScreenJunkies, saying, "I think there's still a lot more that we can learn from Daryl, the Norman Reedus character." She also mentions the Rick/Lori/Shane love triangle.

• The Guardian picks The Walking Dead as one of its favorite U.S. TV dramas, noting, "The wait for the 13-episode second season is now officially unbearable."

• The Detroit Free Press highlights character actors, including Jeffrey DeMunn, calling him "the go-to guy for smart weariness, which he has conveyed in abundance as a calm, caring widower" on The Walking Dead.

• Jeffrey DeMunn's turn as Willy Loman is well-reviewed by the Los Angeles Times ("a convincing portrait of a blustering phony"), the San Diego Union-Tribune ("a portrayal that starkly captures the character's creeping desperation") and SanDiego.com (making Willy "credible in every phase from domineering to pathetic").

• The Times-Picayune covers The Walking Dead's panel at New Orleans Comic-Con -- featuring Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Keisha Tillis (Morgan's wife) and Adrian Turner (Morgan's son Duane) -- and posts photos of the event.

• The Comic Book Bin reports that Jon Bernthal and Laurie Holden will participate in the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, an annual pop culture convention next month.

• The Hollywood Reporter points to Andrew Lincoln in its discussion of British actors getting cast as the leads in American movies and TV shows.

• The CW has greenlit a pilot of a zombie drama called The Awakening; Deadline Hollywood describes it as "The Walking Dead for young females."

• The Walking Dead was a hit overseas, setting channel ratings records on Spain's La Sexta, according to Variety.

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This week Gale Anne Hurd shares Robert Kirkman's Simpsons-esque vision for The Walking Dead while Andrew Lincoln plays prognosticator for Season 2.

• According to Variety, Gale Anne Hurd claims that Robert Kirkman is eager for The Walking Dead to air many, many seasons: "Robert Kirkman has said that he hopes it's the series that challenges The Simpsons." In The Hollywood Reporter, Hurd remarks, "Given the fears in the world today, a zombie apocalypse series was less scary than, say, the financial meltdown or a disease outbreak."

• Andrew Lincoln tells E! Online what to expect in Season 2: "More sweat, more blood, more tears, more fears, just bring it!"

• Jeffrey DeMunn, who's playing Willy Loman on stage in San Diego, tells Playbill, "With The Walking Dead, you could remove the zombies and put something else in their place -- something that is putting human beings under stress, under pressure, putting them in a hard situation."

• Shadowlocked asks Neil Brown, Jr. (Guillermo) if he'll appear in Season 2. The actor responds coyly, " would love to tell you, but they are still doing writes and negotiating contracts."

• The Hollywood Reporter cites The Walking Dead in its discussion of foreign broadcasters co-financing television shows, explaining how "Fox Intl Channels smartly parlayed around the world on Halloween."

• Similarly, C21Media.net reports that Fox International Channels launched the drama simultaneously across all its channels to "better co-ordinate its marketing strategy, safeguard against piracy and build an international buzz."

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As reported in December, The Walking Dead showrunner, Frank Darabont, considered shifting gears with how the show is written and use freelance writers for the next season. The latest news is that the hit AMC show adapted from Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel series will return to “a traditional writing staff model with a staff comparable or a little bigger in size to Season One whose order was for six episodes versus thirteen for Season Two.” Glen Mazzara (The Shield, Crash) has just closed a deal to be the show’s writing executive producer and No. 2 to Darabont for The Walking Dead’s second season. Mazzara has already tousled with zombies in the first season, having written the fifth episode, “Wildfire.” He replaces Charles Eglee who left to pursue a television adaptation with Sony TV of the Brian Michael Bendis / Michael Avon Oeming-penned series Powers.