The Walking Dead exec Greg Nicotero has claimed that the next run of episodes "harkens back to the first season".
The hit zombie drama will return to AMC on February 9 and to Fox in the UK the following day.
"I feel like episode nine [of season four] and onward really harkens back to the first season of The Walking Dead," Nicotero told Channel Guide Magazine. "If you think about season two, they were on Hershel's farm and in season three and half of season four, they had the prison and Woodbury.
"So this is the first time that they're out in the world again. It's the first time that we really get that sense of how big the world is and how unprotected people are in the wilderness."
Nicotero has also directed The Walking Dead's mid-season premiere, written by comic creator Robert Kirkman.
"It's probably the closest adaptation to two issues of the comic book that we've ever done," he teased. "I'm dying for people to see the next eight episodes because there's so much good stuff."
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The Walking Dead's fourth season went on hiatus in December following midseason finale 'Too Far Gone', which pulled in 12.05m viewers for AMC.
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