Trivia / The Walking Dead S02 E01 "What Lies Ahead"

• Alan Smithee: The episode is partially credited to the writer "Ardeth Bey", the latter of which is an alias used by Frank Darabont when he had his name taken off the credits for the episode.
• Deleted Role: Neil Brown Jr. (Guillermo) has given interviews stating that he was supposed to appear in the episode as a cameo, and he is glimpsed very briefly during the original trailer for Season 2 lying dead on the ground as Rick's group guns down walkers at the Vatos retirement home, but his character (and that of the Vatos) do not appear in the finished product. The fate of the Vatos was intended to be revealed in a long deleted sequence, where the group finds the remains of their community (and civilians who have been executed by an unknown party), as part of the original season premiere, but this was ultimately never utilized. While there are claims that Guillermo was supposed to appear as a freshly-turned zombie wandering around the perimeter of the building, it has never been made publicly clear what his role was supposed to be.
• Deleted Scene: Two-thirds of the episode were lopped out in the editing process, and were supposedly the reason for Frank Darabont eventually getting fired by AMC midway through the second season. Some, but not all, of the deleted scenes have appeared on home media releases.
  • The original episode would have begun with the convoy driving away from the CDC, only for Shane's car to blow a tire. He would take the bag of guns and run from a horde that was chasing him, until he's rescued by Rick and Dale in the RV. In a conversation afterwards, the trio would comment on how the walkers seemingly never get tired, reinforcing Rick's decision to tell Sophia to hide in the forest later on in the episode.
  • In a move to rest up, the group would have gone to the Vatos retirement home to seek shelter and plan their next move, only to discover that the residents (and Vatos members) were all executed, had their supplies stolen and were overrun by walkers, forcing the group to hide until the next morning. The scenes went much further into character development (providing the first look at Daryl's Hidden Depths when he corrects Andrea on not realizing that the Vatos were executed, not eaten by walkers; having a discussion between Rick and Shane about Jim and Jacqui's deaths, and whether either of them could have prevented it) and had the group outline their plan to pool their resources and abandon several of their vehicles, which is where the opening sequence of the aired episode picks up (via the Montage of them leaving Atlanta).
  • The original opening sequence of Rick calling Morgan one more time before leaving Atlanta was reshot for the final episode. The original version featured Rick in the t-shirt he is wearing in the original version of the episode (when the group is escaping the CDC), while the reshot sequence has him in full sheriff's uniform for no explained reason.
  • There would have been more reaction when Rick made it back to the highway to the group after dispatching the two walkers pursuing Sophia, as Carol breaks down when she realizes her daughter hasn't arrived, and the other women in the group (Lori and Andrea) consoling her. A separate deleted scene would have shown Carol looking out at the forest at night, seemingly making it clearer that she strongly believed Sophia was gone for good.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Frank Darabont was supposedly fired from the series after hiring a director (Gwyneth Horder-Payton) who turned in "unusable" footage during filming of the premiere. In the second-season DVD set, the producers say that the decision to cut so much material was mutually agreed by the production and the network. However, many fans believe this was a pretense to fire Darabont, as he was complaining about budget cuts and was reportedly not liked by the network. Various articles released around this time also state that much of the cast stayed silent after his departure, for fear that they would be fired as well.
  • As noted in the eventual lawsuit between Darabont and AMC (via depositions made from Darabont), this was the first in a series of escalating battles between himself and AMC vice-president Joel Stillerman over the direction of the show, which manifested itself over the course of filming for the first six episodes (up through the onset of production on "Pretty Much Dead Already") that had both men and fellow executives clashing over the budget and tone of each episode. In 2021, AMC would eventually pay $200 million to Darabont in a settlement over the case.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The scenes of Shane attempting to outrun a horde, and Rick and the survivors firing on a group of walkers outside the Vatos retirement home, are not present in the episode itself. This is due to 2/3rds of the episode being removed during the editing process. The latter sequence would show up as a deleted scene on home media releases, while the former (which was part of the original opening for the episode, where Shane's vehicle blows a tire during the escape from the CDC, and he's forced to run while tired from a horde of walkers) has not been fully released, as of the end of the show's original run.
• What Could Have Been:
  • As revealed by actor Sam Witwer (Being Human (US)) in an interview, one of the ideas for the season premiere was an episode-long flashback detailing one soldier's experiences during the onset of the outbreak. It would have included cameos from several characters (including Andrea, Amy and Dale) and would end with the soldier deciding not to kill himself and die inside a tank, which Rick later crawls into in the pilot episode.
  • The original premiere was titled "Miles Behind Us", and would have dealt with the group escaping a horde after fleeing the CDC and discovering that the Vatos residents were executed and overrun with walkers. Most of the material was discarded, and the highway herd sequence was merged with the footage from the following episode.

---