In the lead-up to The Walking Dead‘s season nine premiere, showrunner Angela King discussed the show’s new credits, specifically the “hidden objects” throughout the opening. “It will hopefully be a little fun for our fans to go digging, frame by frame, for all the little Easter eggs that are buried,” she told us. Kang, along with post-production supervisor Ryan DeGard and title designers Paul McDonnell and Tamsin McGee, also spoke to Art of the Title, a website dedicated to all things title sequences, and shared the concept art for one unused sequence. There’s one frame in particular that’s worth highlighting.
(You can see it here.)
That’s not Ned Stark, but it is decapitated heads on pikes, in a nod to issue #144 of The Walking Dead comic book series. It’s how the Whisperers — who we know are coming to the show this season — mark their territory, and in this case, they did so by killing, among others, King Ezekiel and Rosita. No wonder this opening didn’t make the final version. As for the other Easter eggs…
“I’m afraid if we give away any secrets we will be forced to surrender our first born children — it’s in the contract. However, they all came from Angela and her team,” McDonnell told Art of the Title. Kang added, “The helicopter is an important part of this season, so that was probably the first Easter egg we decided to add into the titles. I credit Ryan for coming up with the idea of including iconic weapons and objects belonging to our characters as a way to pay tribute to the titles we’ve had for the past several years. AMC didn’t want to lose all ties to that history, and this seemed like one really fun way to do it.”
“They knew what they wanted and where they wanted it so it was up to us to make sure they were hidden to varying levels. Some of them are so well hidden that I even have trouble seeing them so I would be surprised if they were all discovered… We can tell you that there are roughly 30 easter eggs scattered throughout the sequence.” (Via)
You can watch the new Ezekiel- and Rosita-less credits below.
(Via Art of the Title)