Much has been said, and not said, about The Walking Dead’s co-creator Frank Darabont leaving his position as showrunner shortly after appearing (and saying nothing about leaving) at Comic Con. As we reported at the end of July, the position has been filled by Glen Mazzara, the man who had been placed as second-in-command back in February. Even with what must have been a somewhat smooth transition, there has been great gnashing of teeth amongst the fans.

Mr. Mazzara sought to quell those fears at a recent screening of the season 2 premiere. Maybe we’re reading too much into it, but it seems like Mr. Mazzara is getting a little tired of all the speculation. As reported by TV Guide, he had these reassuring words to share:

There’s been all this concern that I’m going to f— up this show, and really, we’re just trying to get it done… We all did a lot of work on plotting this season under Frank, and part of the reason we’ve had such a smooth transition is that it’s a fully articulated world… This [season] is consistent with the material that we did last year. I think, like any second season, you work out the bugs. You try to improve. What you’re seeing is the usual growth of any TV show, creatively. There’s no plan to deviate from what we worked out, there’s no different vision of the show.

TV Guide further reported that Darabont had already mapped out the entire season with around eight episodes already written by the time he stepped down.

Moving on! As promised, here is the new season 2 teaser and poster!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5bejZ1gRkw[/youtube]

Hmm. Those of you who have read the comic books or the spoilers may know a little something about this poster, but we’re not talking.

The Walking Dead season 2 special 90-minute premiere is scheduled for Sunday, October 16 at 9/8c on AMC.