It's hard to believe that the time is nearly upon us, and 'The Walking Dead' will shamble out the first episode of season 3 with Sunday's premiere "Seed."  And as glad as we'll be to have 'The Walking Dead' back, we'll also remain on constant edge that our favorite characters will bite the big one, or rather be bitten by a big one.  Show-runner Glen Mazzara certainly isn't going to pull any punches with regard to character kills, but is there one in particular we'll be seeing a bit earlier than expected?

Death looms large over the third season of AMC's 'The Walking Dead,' especially now that the foes for Rick Grimes and the other survivors have gotten a lot more...well, living.  The group may be able to clear out an entire prison full of walkers, but cruelty knows no bounds when it comes to fellow humans that have survived in a harsh, brutal zombie-filled apocalypse.  So with 'The Walking Dead' season 3 ready to premiere this Sunday, October 14, will this be the darkest year yet?

Without revealing any specific character deaths, show-runner Glen Mazzara recently told The Huffington Post that the series wouldn't shy away from some of the darker moments of the books, even if it presents them in different ways.

Fans will be surprised at the dark material that we do show. What we actually take from the comic book and what original dark material we have coming up, will really surprise the audience. We're also in no rush to burn through that prison fight in a couple of episodes.

This is something that we've been working toward and I'm not eager to just kind of burn things through. By the time the entire prison arc is done, I think people will be really satisfied in the way that we told that story.

Fans of the comic book likely know that - POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT - the survivors don't stay at the prison facility forever, though it does host them for significantly longer than Hershel Greene's farm.  Mazzara has said previously that the prison arc could stretch into the as-yet-unconfirmed fourth season, but what of the many character deaths that occurred there in the comics?

There's no way of knowing if Mazzara will follow the books to the letter with some of the more significant deaths, but TVLine did manage to uncover that the season's eighth, and midpoint episode of the season would be titled "Made to Suffer."  If that isn't telling for readers of the book, we don't know what is.

Who do you think will die during 'The Walking Dead' season 3?  Give us your picks in the comments!

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