'The Walking Dead' season 9 time jump confirmed

The time jump in “The Walking Dead” season 9 has officially been confirmed. This means that the plot will match what happened in the comics to a certain extent. The new showrunner of the TV series teased details about the show at a recent event.

According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Angela Kang spoke at the "Kick-Ass Women of AMC" panel. She confirmed that they are “playing with time” in this season.

"We're working on a season that has a really fresh look and feel," Kang said. She teased that there are some “pretty fun stuff” on the show this time around.

“I'm really focusing a lot on the core character relationships in the show that have kind of been long-lasting, as well as all of our wonderful series regulars,” she said.

There will be some big events on the show this year, the most significant of which is the exit of the lead cast member Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes). Rick has been at the heart of the show since the very beginning. It will be interesting see how the show will handle his exit, and who will emerge as the new protagonist.

With a number of high profile deaths on the show, Daryl (Norman Reedus) is tipped to be the new protagonist of the show. The other candidate for this position could have been Maggie (Lauren Cohan), but the character is only slated to appear in six episodes in the first half of the season, with no clarity about her future.

Despite all the concerns about the future of the show, Kang believes that there is scope to tell “great stories,” especially with the female characters. The showrunner said that there is some “great material” to look forward to when it comes to characters like Maggie, Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Carol (Melissa McBride).