The Walking Dead returns to NZ screens

Zombie fans, are you sick of zombies yet?

Spin-off Fear the Walking Dead may have just finished its first season run with Kiwi Cliff Curtis taking on the undead, but there's no time for a break, with season six of parent show The Walking Dead kicking off on Monday.

Where are we at? Here's a quick recap: Michonne, Carl, Carol and the rest of Rick Grimes' survivors found a sanctuary called Alexandria and plenty of naivety among those living there, culminating in a tortured Grimes shaving off his beard and spiralling into madness.

Trailers for season six show several residents on the run and plenty of zombie action, including decaying skeletal figures a long way from the seemingly healthy zombies we saw at the beginning of the series.

Showrunner Scott M Gimple has promised the inclusion of fan favourites from the Walking Dead comic books, including Heath, Scott, Denise Cloyd and a group of scavengers called "The Wolves".

And trailers show the hit zombie show's sixth season will get darker and meaner.

But, as Andrew Lincoln, who plays Grimes, told the Telegraph, it might mean the demise of several other characters. Not that he's giving away spoilers.

"When we start filming a season, I don't want to know if anyone's died. Even though I'm an actor, I'm a bad liar. I don't think it'd be helpful to me, or to anyone else. We have the same reaction as the audience does when someone dies. We feel robbed."

At the show's New York premiere over the weekend, Lincoln said zombies made a comeback this season. "The zombies are very much back in the foreground," he told AP.

"Emotionally, physically, everything is absolutely relentless," added actor Ross Marquand, who plays Aaron.

"They're dealing with the threats from all these different tribal factions that are trying to kill them. We're dealing with more and more zombies than ever before. It's just incredible."

The Walking Dead is one of the most watched shows on television and has a global fan base.

"I'm from Zimbabwe," actress Danai Gurira said. "People watch it there. I've been stopped on the streets of Zimbabwe for being Michonne so, it doesn't get more far away than that, you know? It's really exciting to see that my work in the United States is embraced by my other home that's so far away."

* The Walking Dead, TV2, Monday, 9.40pm.