If you haven't seen season 3, there are spoilers ahead!
Season 3 didn't start immediately after 2, with it taking the survivors a bit of time to find the prison. It seems there will be something similar this time.
"There's going to be a bit of a time jump....it's only a few months, we're not nailing down the exact number of days or anything like that. The prison that we see is a very different prison and the characters that we see are very different from the last time we saw them. We go into season four with characters you've known for four years and still find new things to explore with them and new aspects of their character and see that they are growing and changing in extremely dramatic ways due to the strains that this world has put upon them."
With season 3 focusing on the stories going on at the prison and Woodbury, and one of those no longer being around, season 4 is poised to have a very different style from its predecessor.
"We're telling completely different stories. While the Governor is still out there and still a threat, we're going to see him in a new light and he won't appear until we least expect it. I don't think people are really going to be able to anticipate what we do with the Governor; it's going to be radically different. Once that story unfolds over the course of this season, people will see this is a very different story from season three and we are breaking some new ground with these characters.
Kirkman also updated on where some of the show's characters' motivations will be during the season, including newcomer Bob Stookey, played by Larry Gillard Jr.
Several times the show has made news for the wrong reasons, with it seeming to constantly changing show-runner. Kirkman was asked about the differences between new guy Scott Gimple and previous runners Glen Mazzara and Frank Darabont.
"It's a much more character-based story. It's going to be more focused on who these characters are and what they're going through. To a certain extent, we got away from that a little bit in season three. Coming into season four, we're definitely going to know a lot more about these people so it will be that much more gut-wrenching and worse when we lose these characters."
Finally, Kirkman touched on using ideas from the comics.
"We are definitely going in some new directions and this will continue to be a different take on the material form the comics but there will possibly be some scenes that are a little bit closer to the comic than we've done in the past. Season four probably has the most number of scenes that are adapted directly from the comic series or very close to what we did. A good deal of that is from Scott and the way he views that material and puts forth that extra effort to work it into the show in a way that it all works."