The new batch of episodes of The Walking Dead began last night, and with them came the debuting of the updated logo of the series representing the current state of affairs, which you can see in the gallery below.
The show’s title card has undergone various changes over the years. In seasons 1 through 8, the texture of the words underwent gradual decay, as though wrapped in the slowly rotting skin of the titular undead. Each season, the texture changed, desiccating and perishing like the hope for the future that the characters were slowly eroded of as increasingly bleak events unfolded.
A major alteration then came in season 9, where the words were changed from their yellowed putrefaction to instead show the greenery of plant life emerging from the cracks of dry rock. The intent was to signify the flourishing new life in the aftermath of the war with the Saviors, seeing society being slowly being rebuilt and the future gradually morphing into something to be tentatively hopeful for rather than threatened with.
At the beginning of season 10, the greenery had spread and thickened as a lengthy amount of time had gone by without major incident, the battles with the Whisperers not yet begun. It was changed for the next episode, though, with some burning embers added at the bottom of the words to represent both the forest fire that formed a core event of the instalment, as well as signifying the embers of conflict that would soon ignite. Sure enough, the words were in flames after “Morning Star” when Hilltop was set ablaze, and remained so until the Whisperer War was ended with the death of Beta.
This update sees the flames now extinguished, but left behind is scorched earth stained with blood, suggesting that even though current hostilities in The Walking Dead are concluded, there’s still much to be done before things return to normal and work on restoring humanity to the world can begin again.