The fall just got a whole lot darker: The third season premiere of AMC's hit TV series, "The Walking Dead" is just three weeks away. And with the season three opener approaching faster than a walker on a dinner-run, we're hearing more and more rustlings from cast and crew every day now on what to expect from the new season.

Based off the monthly black-and-white comic book series written by Robert Kirkman, "The Walking Dead" follows a gang of lost souls just trying to survive day-to-day life in a zombie-ridden wasteland. The first two seasons of the AMC series have been hugely-successful. After the season two premiere broke cable ratings records in the 18-49 demographic AMC renewed the show for a third season.

Since then, AMC has announced a slew of new information about the third season. Creator Kirkman has confirmed the third season of the horror series will contain an extended run of 16 episodes, and that it will be split into two halves with the first eight episodes set to premiere on Oct. 14, and the other eight episodes to air in early spring 2013.

Creators have also revealed that season three will introduce many new characters, and contain some shocking deaths of beloved characters. Really, just more of what we've come to expect and love from the gore-happy series. Fan-boy "Walking Dead" re-cap show "Talking Dead" announced that the new cast would include David Morrissey as The Governor, Danai Gurira had been cast as Michonne, and that Michael Rooker (the beloved and hated Merle) would also return in the new season.

"She's a survivor. She's the first character who has figured out this world," says creator Kirkman of new character Michonne

"The Walking Dead" co-executive producer, director and special effects makeup artist Greg Nicotero claims the introduction of new characters like Michonne and The Governor will change the show's dynamic, saying it's "just another extension of where society has gone."

"One character in the show actually says, 'We were all worried about the walkers. You run into some other humans and they turn out to be worse,'" Nicotero said in an interview to MTV News. "It's just adding a whole different level. David Morrissey's fantastic and Danai. Getting Michonne in there and the Governor, it's certainly interesting because in the first two seasons -- last season we added Hershell and Maggie and Beth -- it just feels like every season we pick up a couple new characters and lose a few which, you know, you've got to balance that."

Nicotero will direct episodes 5, 11 and 14 of third season of "The Walking Dead" and will even cameo as a zombie himself at least once. He teased that some of his favorite sequences from Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead" graphic novel appeared in the scripts he got to direct, so fans should expect some familiar, iconic moments to appear in season three - though, of course, Nicotero won't give them away because they're "too spoilery."

"They're in the graphic novel. I'm happy that three of them are in one of my episodes, so I was happy that I was able to direct them," he said. "I was like, 'Ooh, this is good,' because I get to establish situations that play consistently throughout the rest of the season."

"I can't really give away many, but in the first episode alone there's some great moments. They get to the prison and [there are] characters that would have lived and died there that have resurrected. There's some cool [stuff]," he said.

But because ammunition continues to get harder and harder to find, Nicotero said Rick and company will have to come up with more creative (read: violent) ways to kill zombies.

"I think one of the things that we discovered in season three is, clearly in the world that we live in, ammunition is valuable. More valuable than anything else," he said. "The walker kills in season three tend to be a lot more hand-to-hand, so you have to get in close proximity to them. So, with that said, there's a lot of crowbars and there's a lot of hammers and there's a lot of crushed heads and smashed-in heads and axes and machetes and stuff like that."