THE WALKING DEAD creator Robert Kirkman say, "I'm really excited about being able to expand the world from having a six-episode season to a 13-episode season. We're really opening things up to a huge degree and getting to do way more with the characters. It's going to be huge. And it's really cool to see these characters grow that much." He adds, "We're going to see rural roads and open fields and Hershel's farm. It's a completely different setting. We'll see how bad things are as you get away from the city's center. It is a lot more survival."

"Last year was sort of an introduction to this world. It's a big cut, and now we're slicing it, opening, going inside of it," says star Jon Bernthal who portrays Shane Walsh. "There's gonna be some really, really tough decisions to make, and it's going to be pretty sloppy and messy."

Steven Yeun, who play Glenn, says "We're seeing the group dynamic being shattered. We're seeing people losing their minds because they're losing things that are absolutely closest to them."

By the end of episode two, Greg Nicotero and his team completed approximately 400 walkers.

"It's like DELIVERANCE on acid. It's THE WALTON's with PREDATOR. It's crazy, this show. It just constantly keeps surprising me," admits Andrew Lincoln [Rick Grimes].

"The genius of the show is what do people do when they're pressed to the limit? What happens when this happens to the world? And you think, ‘Would I be capable of that?' And the answer is yes. That's strange. So disturbing. It cuts right to the heart of things," states director and cinematographer David Boyd.

Fellow director Gwyneth Horder-Payton adds, "What we found as we were going through the days was that the actors and directors are always trying to find what would be realistic in this situation. What is the reasonable choice to make here? And reasonable choices are not being made so much anymore. They're getting caught where they're making bad decisions and it was kind of fun to explore that."

"Every line just lends to understanding a little bit more about each character; whoever's saying the line, whomever the line is about. It's just so rich and full," describes Melissa McBride, who plays Carol.

"THE WALKING DEAD is almost like a western. Our main characters are pioneers trying to survive in a strange new world, the rules of which they're learning every single day. It's a hostile environment and they're trying to hold on to society. They're trying to hold on to each other. They're trying to hold on to any semblance of civilization in the middle of the wilderness and that's what westerns are about," notes director Ernest Dickerson.

Yeun says, "There's a pretty big level of defeat right after the CDC blows up. That was it – that's where we were going to spend he rest of our lives. We were there for two days, and it's done."

"They free themselves of the city. And I think once they do that, it's almost like a collective sigh," says Lincoln. When asked if they are going to find salvation at the farm, Lincoln tilts his head, "It feels very much like an invasion. There is this safe haven that's working perfectly well, and they seem to be getting on perfectly well without us.  And we come in, and explode their world."

Norman Reedus, who portrays the conflicted Daryl Dixon, adds, "There's hope that there's other people out there. We know there are other people out there, but other people that we can start over with."

Boyd notes, "It unfolds beautifully, and there's mystery there: Are these people good? Are they bad? What are they up to? They've got their own agenda, so here are two tribes who've come together and are helping each other but staying separate. They take care of themselves first, and then discover things about each other."

Gale Anne Hurd admits, "It deviates from the comic book in the sense that Shane's still around, it also gives us an opportunity to really explore what that means to each one of the characters."

Adds Kirkman, "It's really neat for me to treat THE WALKING DEAD TV show as an alternate dimension where Shane lives, and there's all this different stuff happening because of that, so I think it's really cool to be able to go back to something you wrote a long time ago and look at it in a different light."

"It feels like we're sort of making the rules as we go along," grins Lincoln. "I've never seen anything like this show, and that's really exciting," comments Lincoln. With regards to his character, he "wanted Rick to be less sure of himself. He's starting to come unhinged. He shoulders all the responsibility, and takes blame for things that aren't necessarily his fault."

"Shane starts to really be disgusted by the weakness of these sort of pre-apocalypse emotions, like guilt, and blame and shame. He finds himself in a much more robotic state," says Bernthal.

Sarah Wayne Callies [Lori Grimes] believes, "Lori's greatest challenge is probably just keeping her head above water. In the future, and by future, I mean the next two days, there are times when she just goes ‘I wish we'd all gone in the first wave. I wish Rick hadn't woke up from the hospital.' We're exhausted, sick, deprived, and terrified. Are there doubts? Sure."

Laurie Holden shares, "Andrea starts out as this bereft woman. The metamorphosis, the gradual change, is very organic. It doesn't happen overnight. Andrea still carries a sadness, but she is also getting stronger."

Earning the nickname Gandolf, Jeffrey DeMunn says of Dale, "There's always hope. Hopelessness is not a state of mind my character goes to. It's just a question of what are we going to do, how are we going to do it. He's learning what his leadership role is within this group. People lead in certain ways, in different directions."

"Glenn really hasn't had much to live for. It's going to be a lot of fun seeing a potential love interest for him," notes Yeun. "He ended up being a fan favorite in the First Season, so we get to see a little bit of romance for this guy," adds Kirkman.

Yeun continues, "There's nothing to base the relationship on. As in the real world, how much money do you make? What is your job? Are you stylish? Are you a handsome person? All that's been stripped away. Now it is purely ‘do you love this person? Are you going to live because of this person?'"

Chandler Riggs says his character Carl "is completely scared to death" in the beginning, and then "finds his switch."

"You're going to see more of Daryl figuring things out and taking charge," mentions Reedus. "Making decisions for the group, instead of with them. I like angels that will shoot you in the back, and I like devils that'll break down and cry. I like the contradiction."

Iron E. Singleton explains, "If the Doctor at the CDC felt hopeless, why should [T-Dog] go on? But it's innate to want to live to see another day."

Melissa McBride says, "The whole first part of Season Two is really testing the faith and the hope of everybody with the things that happen. At what cost do we try to survive, and to what end?"

Madison lintz, who plays Sophia, comments, "Her dad died in Season One, so she's still shaken up. She's worried that will happen to her mom too so she clings to her."

In addition to the growth and separation of each character, the zombies now operate under a hive mentality. "It's a swarm. They always had a degree of that. It seems now that – these clusters, these hives – they're traveling around with one mind," notes DeMunn.

Riggs says, "The first episode in the last season there was like, 50. But now, there's hundreds."  Yeun adds, "They are mindless walking beings, but they somehow assembled themselves into a group. That raises the threat level ultimately because you're going to have to deal with these. These hordes are going to be bigger and bigger."

It takes approximately 8 days to shoot one episode of THE WALKING DEAD. The days are long and grueling. Patience, skill and endurance are a must.

"I love playing Rick Grimes. For somebody that comes from a completely different city, country, culture; it's one of the greatest gifts to be able to play someone like Rick," But Lincoln admits it has its difficulties as well, "It's a full physical workout, and an emotional workout. It's one of the most intense jobs I've ever come across."

"This season feels un-relentless, and I don't mean the heat and the bugs," confesses Callies. "Every character is changing. These are people who are fundamentally changing to their code. Some of this stuff is so big. We're digging in as deep as we have ever dug. It's a perverse kind of fun. This is the kind of work that you become an actor to do. I don't think there are many times when you get an opportunity to sink your teeth so far into something."

Bernthal adds, "What's really cool about the making of this show is that every day is so unbelievably different." An unpredictable Reedus [shown leading the group in the above photo] chimes in, "I'm like an eight year old, running around with a crossbow, shooting zombies in the brain. It's the coolest job ever." Riggs says, "Last season I was not near zombies at all. And now, this season, with this herd of zombies coming through – it's just crazy!" Iron E. Singleton reads every script hoping not to die, "I flip through to the end to see if I'm in the whole thing."

With the bar set incredibly high, Nicotero explains, "The pace of episodic television is really fast and furious so you have to be prepared. Everything you potentially need at your disposal must be within five feet of you. While we were shooting, I was literally making intestine like Sushi. I was putting slime in the middle and rolling it. Everything had this really gross organic weight to it." When Nicotero was told that it was grosser than what he had accomplished last year, he rejoiced, "That's Good! That's Great! I want it to be more disgusting and even more gut-wrenching than last year because that's what the audience is going to expect."

Kirkman agonizes over the scripts saying, "It's always a strange process seeing these characters that I've known for years and years come to life and exist in flesh and blood and be people I can shake hands with. That's kind of surreal. We lost a lot of people in Season One, and you never take that lightly. It's very difficult to do. If they're good characters, there are always more scenes to write, there's always more things you could do with them. So it's always a difficult decision, but this is the nature of things: There are zombies around. People gots to die."

THE WALKING DEAD sees some fresh faces this season as well. "We introduce Hershel and his family," says Hurd. "I know that a lot of fans have been very excited to meet them." Kirkman emphasizes, "The casting of Season Two is as pitch-perfect as the casting of Season One. I can't wait for everyone to meet Hershel."

Scott Wilson stars as Hershel (pictured, left), a landowner. Pruitt Taylor Vince portrays Otis, a farm hand. Lauren Cohan is Maggie, Hershel's daughter and the potential love interest for Glenn. Jane McNeil plays Patricia, Otis' girlfriend. Emily Kinney was cast as Beth, Hershel's youngest daughter and James Allen McCune signed on as Jimmy, Beth's boyfriend.

"Scott Wilson, who is amazing, just brings a whole other voice and feel to the series," states Dickerson. Lincoln adds, "I came to America to work with people like Scott Wilson. It's truly a great honour."

"I don't know how they keep managing to hire nice people, it's rare," says Bernthal. "It's been cool to see their eyes open, and see what this experience is like because it's unlike any other TV show. They're being broken in, but they're digging it."

Production Designer Greg Melton and his team take the look from the city of Atlanta through the rural deep backwoods to Hershel's farm, that he swears "is alive."

Melton and his team also create a huge apocalyptic traffic jam scene on an actual interstate with abandoned, burnt-out cars, and several dead all about. Hurd describes it "as big, if not bigger, than anything we've had in the first season." 

With a sly grin, Yeun remarks, "We're not doing something in front of green screen."

The traffic jam is seen in the first couple of episodes. "It's a major set piece. There were so many vignettes within the pileup. There were all these connected bits; people under the cars who had to see certain people under other cars. One scene took about 11 hours," says Horder-Payton. "The actors were quite happy down there [under the cars]. You know that secure felling where you're sort of inside and outside at the same time."

The first thing Nicotero did after watching the Premiere Season of The Walking Dead was write a list of do's and don'ts for Season Two. "It's all the little things that I noticed and thought, ‘we should change the color of the blood,' for example. The human blood, when they treated the footage in post, got really bright looking. In the next season we should darken the blood a little bit so it won't be quite as jarring," recalls Nicotero.

Kirkman gloats, "Greg's definitely taking things to the next level. This season's zombies are the best zombies you've ever seen because of what Greg and KNB are doing next. It's really cool." He adds, "There's definitely some memorable comic book zombies here and there, but a lot of this stuff is just Greg going, ‘OK, what can you do to the human body?'"

Nicotero continues, "We had 20 new sets of contact lenses made that are even more extreme than last year. You're supposed to get the idea that as time progresses, the eyes continue to cataract over. I was literally looking at photos of rotted eggs, that kind of yellowish-brown with little red veins in it. I was trying to find the most revolting visual rotten egg for an eye. And that's what we ended up doing."

"Even with the teeth, we took molds we had for skulls and made latex teeth that we could glue on the outside of stunt performers and extras faces so they didn't have to be customs dentures that went into their mouths, but was glued to the outside of their lips and then prosthetics would cover the edges," adds Nicotero. "It gave us a lot more of that skull-like look." "Every zombie that comes out of the trailer is worthy of a close-up, which makes me really proud," a humble Nicotero admits.

Nicotero calmly understates a day on set with his team, "On a big zombie day, you get up at 3am. On an average zombie day, you get up at 5am. You do make up for 3-4 hours. You step outside and cover yourself in sunscreen. You cover yourself in bug spray. You go to set. Ultimately you're covered in fake blood and you're sticky. And then you wrap and clean up all the zombies. On your way home to stop at the local tavern, get a beer and fish tacos, and go home to bed. And you check for ticks."

Reedus comments, "Greg Nicotero is so good at what he does. It's super disgusting. [In one scene] it felt correct. There was the right amount of goop and blood and bile – he had bile in there – and every single organ was heavy and full and made noises. It was pretty dope."

THE WALKING DEAD returns to AMC for its second season with a 90-minute premiere episode, airing at 9pm ET/PT on Sunday, October 16th. Six one-hour episodes in the weeks following on Sundays at 9pm ET/PT. THE WALKING DEAD then takes a break for the Winter, coming out of hibernation for the final six episodes of the season, starting on Sunday, February 12th at 9pm ET/PT.

Read a brief synopsis of the first seven episodes of Season 2:

EPISODE 201 ("What Lies Ahead"): Rick leads the group out of Atlanta. On the highway, they are stopped by a threat unlike anything they have seen before. The group searches for someone who has gone missing.

EPISODE 202 ("Bloodletting"): Coming to the aid of another, Rick discovers a possible safe haven. Shane must go on a dangerous mission to get badly needed medical supplies.

EPISODE 203 ("Save the Last One"): The group desperately awaits Shane’s return. Shane finds himself trapped in a school, surrounded by the undead. Daryl and Andrea search for someone in the woods.

EPISODE 204 ("Cherokee Rose"): Shane makes a deadly sacrifice which leads to unusual behavior and self-distancing.  The rest of the group tries to hang on somewhere between living to die and dying to live.

EPISODE 205 ("Chupacabra"): Concerned for their safety, the group makes a plan – one that Hershel disagrees with adamantly. He makes it clear the group is fine to stay for now, but not indefinitely.

EPISODE 206 ("Secrets"): Glenn, the only one breaking barriers between both groups, knows far too much for his comfort level. Daryl finds a sign of life and, in his delirium, tries to make it back to the
farm alive. 

EPISODE 207 ("Pretty Much Dead Already"): Secrets are told and secrets are revealed.  Hershel refuses to acknowledge the world’s new reality.  Andrea comes out of her shell.  Everyone is becoming more and more aware that "everything is food for something."

ANDREW LINCOLN as Rick Grimes: With the group dynamic shattered by one of Rick's decisions, he feels the weight of the responsibility to keep the group safe and together. Everyone is creating different loyalties, becoming more fragmented.  It is one immediate crisis after another.  Breakable, Rick does not get any breaks, with the exception of a farm owner named Hershel.  But it is not the break it appears to be. 

JON BERNTHAL as Shane Walsh: The reality of his situation now that Rick is back sets in.  Still in love with Lori and Carl, Shane is conflicted about whether he should stay or leave the group.  The torment leads to unusual behavior and self-distancing, ridding himself of human emotion no longer useful in this  un-human world.  He begins to question Rick's decisions and starts to take matters into his own hands.

SARAH WAYNE CALLIES as Lori Grimes: Each time Lori loosens her tight grip on her family, they suffer greatly.  She starts to question the value of life, all the while, keeping a life-changing secret from Rick, who has a secret of his own.  She is tormented by the presence of Shane, yet can't sever a tie to one of the few people left who knew, and has memories of, her previous life before the apocalypse.

LAURIE HOLDEN as Andrea: Still suicidal, Andrea is full of grief and guilt that her sister was attacked before her very eyes.  She is also raging mad at Dale for taking her choice to die gracefully away from her.  She only fled the CDC with Dale so his death would not be at her hands as well. Without forgiveness, she gradually accepts she must live in this world, but it will beon her terms, period. 

JEFFREY DEMUNN as Dale: Dale keeps his cards close to his vest, knowing he has more control over each situation than he lets on.  Yet Dale struggles with the distance Andrea puts between them because of her anger at him for saving her life at the CDC.  Having lost his wife, Dale did not want to lose the one person who got him to care again.  He tries to come to terms with the fact that Andrea's choice to stay or go was not his decision to make.

STEVEN YEUN as Glenn: Always the optimist with an insatiable desire to be valued by all, Glenn exudes hope, but just how much can he internalize?  He slowly becomes more and more aware he is being taken for granted, only being asked to help when others do not want the menial or maniacal task.   Then he meets Maggie, Hershel's daughter, and his world is changed again.  While still driven by his moral compass, his priorities shift.  He is no longer content to be in the background, but he is not quite sure if he's ready to be in the spotlight.

CHANDLER RIGGS as Carl Grimes: Carl feels the pressure his father Rick is under and wants to be brave, while still a child.  He is confused as to why Shane is treating him differently. He sees the group breaking apart and wants to step up to protect his family and disappearing extended family. 

NORMAN REEDUS as Daryl Dixon: Still volatile over how Merle was left for dead, Daryl is on a road of self-discovery now that he is out of his big brother's shadow. He's a tracker. He's observant. And he is fully capable of surviving on his own.  However, he is appreciating the concept of family from afar, perhaps for the first time in his life. He slowly starts to develop individual relationships, all the while fighting his instinct to be distant, yet feeding his need for emotional connection like a child.

ROBERT 'IronE' SINGLETON as T-Dog: Struggling with the guilt of leaving Merle behind on the roof top, T- Dog feels the need to continually prove his worth to the group.  But he is rendered useless and vulnerable.  Finding new found trust in Dale, T-Dog confides in him and discloses a better plan for survival.

MELISSA McBRIDE as Carol: With the death of her abusive husband Ed, Carol finds additional inner strength and some peace of mind that the main threat to her and her daughter Sophia now only comes from outside the group.  But her nightmare is just beginning.

MADISON LINTZ as Sophia: The daughter of Carol and the now deceased Ed, Sophia further withdraws. She takes solace in her friendship with Carl.  They are truly each other's best friends. Worried her mother will be the next one to die, Sophia becomes un-nerved as the Walkers appear to organize.

THE WALKING DEAD Props Master John Sanders discusses some of the props used by characters on the show including the various weapons used to kill zombies. 

THE WALKING DEAD - A First Look at Season 2: Sheriff Rick Grimes literally takes matters into his own hands in this first look at season 2 of The Walking Dead.

THE WALKING DEAD Sneak Peek: Episode 201, What Lies Ahead: "I'm not going out there without my gun." Andrea lets it all out in this sneak peek from episode 201.