With barely a week before the Season 5 premiere of "The Walking Dead," executive producer Gale Anne Hurd dished some details about what viewers can expect when the hit zombie show returns on AMC on Oct. 12.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gurd shared her own thoughts about Beth's (Emily Kinney) predicament in the upcoming season.
"She's on her own now," the 58-year-old producer and screenwriter told EW of Beth. "The good news is that she has a huge desire, unlike she did when we first met her, to live, to survive, and to rejoin the group."
"But that may not be what the people she's encountered have in store for her," she added. "Clearly, she's got her hands full, as you can tell from the very last shot of the promo. She's in a place where it's not all sweetness and light."
Kinney recently opened up about what she feels now that her character is separated from the rest of the group.
"All along the way, Beth has been taking on different roles within the group and now being separated and being on her own, she's had to grow up in a specific way," the 29-year-old actress explained to Channel Guide Magazine. "We've seen her grow up being on the farm and being in the prison and taking care of the baby. Losing her father. And then being separated with Daryl. Those are all things that pushed her to be an adult - and she's definitely gonna have to use everything she's got and use everything she's learned from the people around her to work it this season!"
In the same interview with EW, Hurd also revealed that Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) group will have to encounter several "Cities of The Dead" before they can reach Washington D.C.
"The show has spent a lot of time in primarily rural settings, but you're never going to find the cure to the zombie apocalypse in the sticks," Hurd explained. "Now with them embarking on a mission, they have to reenter what we call the City of the Dead. There are many cities of the dead that they'll have to encounter to complete their mission."
"So not only does it make it more difficult because the number of walkers, but also there are more hiding places in which their human antagonists can lurk," she added. "So however stiff and difficult the stakes have been up until this season, now they've been raised even further."
Lead actors Lincoln and Norman Reedus (Daryl) recently told TV Guide that they like being out on the road more than being confined in a certain location like the prison.
"I like being in the woods and being on the move," said Reedus.
"Yeah, I don't like getting too comfortable," Lincoln added. "I don't think that's our show."