AMC's hit zombie survival drama, The Walking Dead, is set to air its Season 5 in October, exclusively on the AMC network. Rumors and spoilers about the upcoming installment have been rampant, and according to Executive producer Robert Maxfield, fans should expect a fast-paced and intense season.

Maxfield mentioned the idea of major character deaths in the first few episodes of the new season, "It's always highly likely, though I wouldn't say that it's any more likely than it ever is, but it is always extremely likely. We did pull back on the reins a little bit at the end of season four. We're definitely going to hit the ground running for season five and we really don't let up very quickly at all. It's going to be a pretty fast-paced, intense season," he said per au.ibtimes.com.

Maxfield had been teasing fans recently, although not mentioning anything specific, he makes it seem that this season will have a different flavor compared to the previous seasons, "A lot of conflict and really cool character traits to the mix," Maxfield said per au.ibtimes.com.  

Producer Jolly Dale also teased fans and advertised this season as one of the biggest yet, "Well, you will eventually see that the Premiere episode is by far the biggest episode that we've ever done. So, getting it all together to make it come off as good as we want has been a huge task, but it's going to be amazing," he said on AMC TV per enstarz.com.

Producers of the show mentioned that there will be some changes to the plot, compared to the comic series, but fans should know that the show's storyline will not diverge much, "The way I see it is, we've killed a lot of beloved characters on the show, but that just opens it up for new story lines to come along. So don't be too sad about all the people who died in Season 4 because there will be way more characters to come," Dale said per enstarz.com.