We've already been promised that "The Walking Dead" Season 8 will kick off with four episodes that will "melt people's minds," but we always want to know more. Fortunately, showrunner Scott Gimple has delivered.

While the writer is, of course, still keeping a lot hidden, he did reveal what's at stake in Season 8 during an interview with Variety. It's more than you might think, too. The long-awaited Season 8 battle between the coalition led by Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his Saviors won't just determine who lives but also what kind of world they live in.

"There's a very basic political idea at play here," Gimple told Variety. "They want to live in a fair world instead of having it just be Negan's. To that end, that idea feels to me like the beginning of civilization is at stake, this new civilization they want to build rather than live this strange half-life serving a despot."

The impact, as Gimple pointed out, will spread farther than "just their little corner" of the world. This makes the stakes higher than ever, so we're in for an extremely intense Season 8.

We're in for a wait, too, unfortunately. With the Season 7 finale having only recently aired, it will be months before we finally see Rick's coalition and Negan's Saviors take each other on; "The Walking Dead" Season 8 is slated to premiere in late 2017.

[via: Variety]