RICHMOND, Va. -- As fans of "The Walking Dead" countdown to the hit show's Mid-Season 5 Premiere, a big question remains unanswered. With Atlanta overrun by "walkers," where will our favorite band of zombie-apocalypse survivors run for safety? This week AMC released a two-minute teaser clip that hints the answer to that question is Richmond, Virginia. In the final episodes of Season 5's first half, we met a character named Noah, played by Tyler James Williams. Noah spoke about being from "near Richmond" and how he wanted to return home where a safe community was established.
"She was going to come with me," Noah tells "The Walking Dead" star Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) in the two-minute teaser.
"How far?" Grimes asks.
"Outside of Richmond, Virginia, " Noah replies.
Later in the teaser, Grimes tells his fellow survivors what he knows about the community that awaits them in Richmond.
"It was secure. It had a wall. Homes. Twenty people," he says. "It's a long trip, but if it works out, it's the last long trip we have to make."
The teaser does not show any video of Richmond (at least not the Richmond we know) and it is clear The Walking Dead" did not relocate its cast and crew from Georgia to Virginia. All of this begs the question, will Richmond really play a role in the "The Walking Dead" story?
"We have not heard a peep from 'The Walking Dead,'" Mary Nelson, the Deputy Director of the Virginia Film Office, said. Nelson said if television shows and movie productions sets the story in Richmond, her office will sometimes field questions about the types of police cars or street signs used in actual Richmond communities.
"Once they get the crew and cast settled in one place, it's difficult to move around," Nelson said when asked why the entire production would just not move to Virginia if the story brought the characters here. She added another AMC show, "Turn," did film in Central Virginia and that she was excited about a new PBS Civil War series that will be shot around Richmond.
But that's not "The Walking Dead" and "The Walking Dead" is why you're reading this article. So let's answer the question at hand. Richmond does have a very close relationship to "The Walking Dead." Richmond native Chad Coleman plays sensitive, zombie killer Tyreese on the show.
In an effort to get a definitive answer about the direction "The Walking Dead" was taking, we reached out to Coleman via Twitter. When asked whether Richmond plays a role in the upcoming season, Coleman replied via private message.
"The prodigal child returns home," he said.
So there you have it. Straight from Tyrese. It sounds like Richmond will play a role in one of the nation's most popular television shows.
This has us asking ourselves, where in Richmond would you hide from a flesh-eating herd of zombies?
Tweet me your response or shoot me an email.
