A new interview with The Walking Dead producer Gale Anne Hurd has been released by AMC. They speak with her on the season three set and Hurd reveals some nice tidbits about the production.

Season three is the longest to date (16 episodes compared to 6 in season one and 13 in season two). So can we expect the upcoming batch of episodes to be just as excited?

Q: This season is the longest yet, at 16 episodes. What kind of challenges does a longer season present?

A: It’s really a marathon this year. The advantage is we have had some cooler weather in May and we’ll be going into cooler weather again in October. The challenge is maintaining the same intense level of storytelling that our audience expects of us, and we certainly plan to deliver on that.

Q: There are so many new locations and characters this season, what are you most excited about?

A: I will say that I loved the farm, but it is good to be off the farm. And the contrast between our [two main sets] this season is so great…We’re setting up this first community that is functioning in a post-zombie apocalypse. We get to see not only the advantages of putting civilization back on its feet again but also the dark forces at work in what may seem like a Utopia.

Hurd also teased what’s to come at Comic-Con San Diego 2012 for Walking Dead fans:

We like to bring a special reel for the fans at Comic-Con so they can see a special sneak peak of Season 3 before everyone else. It’s sort of a reward for waiting in line to getting it into the hall. And we’ll be bringing a larger contingent of our cast and crew than ever this year. And also because we began shooting a lot earlier this year, the reel will contain a lot more footage than it has in the past.

You can read more with the producer over on AMC.