'Walking Dead' boss says Season 8 will be 'more intense' and we're not ready

Spoiler warning: This article contains plot details for The Walking Dead Season 7 finale, titled "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life."

After a season defined by tragedy and torment, Season 7 of The Walking Dead ended on a hopeful note, with Maggie and Rick reflecting on Glenn's legacy after the combined forces of The Kingdom, Hilltop and Alexandria managed to beat back Negan's Saviors and the Scavengers who chose to side with them.

Season 8 of AMC's juggernaut will draw inspiration from the "All Out War" storyline in Robert Kirkman's comics, in which Rick and his allies take on Negan's men in an escalating series of battles to try and dethrone the despotic leader once and for all.

"It's going to be bigger, more intense," showrunner Scott Gimple said of Season 8 on Talking Dead following the finale. "The first four episodes will melt people's minds and break their televisions."

Considering that Season 7 drew criticism for being relentlessly meandering, fans may be pleased to learn that Gimple is planning to speed things up in Season 8 as the conflict between our heroes and the Saviors intensifies.

"It’s going to be different. They aren’t going to meet in Alexandria every weekend and do that. There are twists and turns to it, definitely some small-scale things and some large-scale things and a whole different momentum to the story," Gimple told TVLine. Now that [the various factions] are in public conflict and everything is on the table as far as everybody knows who everybody is to each other and what’s going on, the narrative changes a lot. It’s going to become a bit more kinetic and fast-moving, because that’s where the story is going. The content is definitely going to be determining the form."

In an interview with Variety, Gimple also drew a political comparison between Rick and Negan's competing ideologies, noting that the Alexandrians aren't just fighting for their own freedom, but a larger goal.

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“It isn’t just their little corner. It’s the Kingdom and the Hilltop too. The Governor just wanted them dead. Negan would be happy if everyone was alive and well and working for him," Gimple pointed out. "There’s a very basic political idea at play here. They want to live in a fair world instead of having it just be Negan’s. To that end, that idea feels to me like the beginning of civilization is at stake, this new civilization they want to build rather than live this strange half-life serving a despot.”

Season 7 began with Glenn and Abraham being brutally murdered by Negan, but Season 8 will start in a different emotional space, Gimple told THR.

"Rick and the group are coming off a win and even with the loss of Sasha, she was such a huge part of that win — she wasn't a victim, she was a team captain in some ways — and that's a good way for them to start the season and a good place for them to be," he explained. "This isn't a time of them wringing their hands; it's a time to descend into righteous battle, which is a serious thing. They're not glib about it but there is something extremely freeing to these people to be involved in such a noble cause. "

Speaking of Sasha's sacrifice, Sonequa Martin-Green addressed her character's demise on Talking Dead, and she seemed at peace with it -- calling her character's fate "poetic."

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"It was the first time we had ever rooted for a walker but it was also beautiful because the way I saw it is, that warrior spirit lives on," she said. "Even in death, I was still going to fight because I had realized my purpose: everything before that had been self-preservation, self-defense mechanisms and basically self-obsession. Over the course of my life as Sasha, it was progressing beyond that, to the point where I said I now have a greater purpose that's much bigger than me."

But did her words of encouragement have an effect on Eugene (Josh McDermitt), who turned his back on his Alexandrian allies by insisting "I am Negan" in the finale?

"He has still not found the strength to get over his fear. He’s still Negan after seeing everything Sasha is doing," Gimple told Variety. "I don’t think it looks good for Eugene. But with everything Sasha said to him, maybe his courage is just lying dormant.”

The Walking Dead Season 8 premieres in October on AMC.