The Walking Dead

Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon and Michonne are all back in front of the same bloody camera lens -- shooting for season 9 of "The Walking Dead" is officially underway.

The surviving cast of 'TWD' were all spotted on set Thursday as filming for the new season began in Atlanta and, from the looks of it, a lot of the characters are gonna be getting around on horseback.

Except Daryl, of course ... he's sticking to his hot wheels.

A few noteworthy observations ... Rick and Jesus are rocking new, clean-cut looks -- and Jadis and the Oceanside ladies have apparently integrated with the rest of the group.

No sign of Negan, though ... who was last seen as Rick's prisoner. But we're sure he'll show his mug eventually. Also absent, for now ... the freakin' zombies.

A student who survived the Florida shooting wants you to see how a single AR-15 bullet butchered his foot ... mangling it to pieces.

Kyle Laman -- who was inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High when Nikolas Cruz opened fire and brutally murdered 17 people -- tells TMZ ... he damn near needed an amputation after a bullet pierced his right foot ... leaving a gaping and horrifying hole.

The 15-year-old freshman -- who will need at least 4 surgeries and a year of rehab before he can walk again -- described the excruciating pain he felt after waking up from one of his surgeries.

Kyle's mom, Marie, used the TV show "The Walking Dead" as a way of describing her son's injury. She's adamant -- no one in America who isn't old enough to buy a beer should be allowed to buy such powerful ammo. The family has now started a GoFundMe account.

Jesus wants to rock and who's gonna tell him he can't?

Thomas Payne, aka Jesus on "The Walking Dead," busted out a surprise performance last weekend of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." Thomas and a bunch of other 'Dead' stars were in Iselin, NJ for a fan convention.

We're told TP was drinking at the hotel bar when he decided to jump on stage with the local faves, Chapter 2 Band, and did his best Steven Tyler impression. We'll say this -- he went for it.

Thomas was on a roll -- he also belted R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly."

He did all this singing while complaing about a stomach ache. Not that you can tell. Much.

To impress 'Walking Dead' makeup artist and executive producer Greg Nicotero it takes more than zombie makeup.

We got the genius behind the show's most epic zombies at LAX where he told us to really wow him this Halloween, someone's got to step outside the box, like upcoming makeup artist John Wrightson.

Nicotero gives Wrightson a big plug for masterfully creating a Trump and Putin costume inspired by "Total Recall," which we found on Wrightson's Instagram page and could go down as one of the best costumes of 2017.

Consider it a passing of the torch.

The Dodgers might have an even BIGGER advantage in the World Series -- because 'Walking Dead' star Jeffrey Dean Morgan says he's willing to loan his beloved barbed wire bat to Kiké Hernandez.

JDM -- whose character, Negan, has been using his bat, Lucille, to smash heads on the show since 2016 -- was at LAX when we started talkin' baseball.

First off, this dude is the coolest ... taking pics and signing for everyone who recognized him.

But when it came to the legendary bat -- Morgan says there's one guy in New York he REALLY wants to give it to ... if the Astros hadn't spoiled the party.

#MaybeNextYear

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the guy known for bashing everything on "The Walking Dead" ... thinks Emmy-night celebs did something very un-Negan -- easing up on President Trump bashing.

We got JDM flying out of LAX Monday and he said the Trump attacks were toned down this year, but not because Hollywood, in general, approves of POTUS. Keep in mind ... there were still plenty of jabs at 45 and his administration-- just ask Sean Spicer. But still less than last year's slugfest on then-candidate Trump.

Whatever the reason, Jeffrey's just happy folks are getting away from politics at award shows.

He also got a big laugh out of our on-the-nose name suggestion for the kid he and Hilarie Burton are expecting.

John Bernecker died when a planned fall on the set of "The Walking Dead" went horribly wrong, but there are conflicting accounts as to who, if anyone, is to blame ... TMZ has learned.

Here's what we know ... John and another actor, Austin Amelio, were shooting a scene on a balcony, and the script called for John to plummet 22 feet to the ground. According to police, there was a safety cushion in place below the balcony. Assistant director Matthew Goodwin told cops he missed the cushion "just by inches."

According to Goodwin ... John didn't appear to get good separation from the balcony when he started falling, and even "attempted to abort the fall by grabbing onto the railing with both hands." He told cops John's momentum slammed him into the bottom of the balcony and then he released his hands and fell ... landing on his head and neck ... right next to the cushion.

Production staff placed cardboard next to the safety cushion to cover the blood left after John's fall.

John's girlfriend, Jennifer Cocker -- who is a stuntwoman herself, but was not on set -- tells TMZ she's extremely upset with the production, saying, "Sets need to be safer. There has to be a prerequisite not to put a super professional stuntman with an inexperienced actor who doesn't know what he's doing."

Other stunt people we spoke to tell us there was a very experienced and respected stunt coordinator for the scene and it was completely safe. According to the cops ... John even gave a thumbs-up to signal he was ready to begin filming.

Amelio told cops he and Bernecker chatted before the scene and John said he'd never done a stunt fall from that height. He also said John "seemed a little nervous."

John Bernecker, a 'Walking Dead' stuntman has died ... TMZ has learned.

As we reported, Bernecker fell off a 25 foot high balcony Wednesday afternoon on the set of the show. He was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center where he was placed on a ventilator.

The Medical Examiner tells us the 33-year-old died in the hospital Thursday evening. He was surrounded by friends and family, including his girlfriend who is a stuntwoman on the show when a ventilator was turned off. A source tells us earlier the swelling in his brain seemed to go down at one point on Thursday, but then it swelled back up again.

John had been on the ventilator since Wednesday, and the ME's Office tells us his date of death is that day ... July 12. The cause of death is accidental blunt force trauma.

The accident occurred at Raleigh Studio in Georgia and AMC shut down production shortly after the fall.

John put in nearly 10 years of stunt work in Hollywood and had most recently worked on huge movies like "Black Panther," "The Fate of the Furious," and "Logan."

The 'Walking Dead' stuntman who fell about 25 feet off a balcony was bleeding from his head and nose after the impact ... this according to the 911 call.

TMZ has obtained the audio ... and the caller, an assistant director on set, says in the audio they need an ambulance ASAP after John Bernecker fell Wednesday afternoon. The caller told dispatch John's breathing heavily and they can't tell if he landed on his back or head ... but said, "his neck is in the position where he landed."

John was described as "barely conscious" at the time of the call. The caller did not say if they were shooting a scene at the time but AMC said it's temporarily shutting down production.

A 'Walking Dead' stuntman fell more than 20 feet onto a concrete floor ... suffering a serious head injury that sent him to the hospital.

John Bernecker was reportedly on set Wednesday in Georgia when the accident happened. It's unclear how he fell or if he was in the middle of shooting a scene -- but he had to be airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center where he's in ICU.

His girlfriend posted a Facebook message, saying ... "John deserves to be seen by every neorusurgeon and doctor there is until one of them sees the life we all know he has in him and bring him back to us... THIS ISNT FAIR."

John -- who specializes in high falls -- has also worked on "24: Legacy" and 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.'

"The Walking Dead" star Daniel Newman was mentoring an LGBTQ kids group when he made the choice to tell the world what his friends and family already knew.

Daniel came out on Twitter Thursday ... the same day we ran into him outside an L.A. mission for the homeless. He explained why he'd only spoken about his sexuality with his inner circle up to this point.

But more importantly, you gotta see him explain the moment he decided it was important for him to go public. Great message. Great guy.

Thomas Payne's character, Jesus, from "The Walking Dead" finally came out as gay on Sunday night's episode, but he says his sexuality on the show isn't and shouldn't be a significant part of the story line.

We got Tom at LAX Monday where he told us the subtle moment was a long time coming. His character is gay in the comic books and it's also been hinted throughout the season.

A rep for Norman tells us the two are just friends and did not take a trip together.

Diane Kruger and Norman Reedus just moved past rumored fling status to romantic road trip couple.

We got these shots of the celebs in NYC allegedly returning Thursday from a getaway in his fancy sports car. Diane was all smiles as Norman unloaded the whip. Who knew Porsches had that kinda cargo space?!

Josh McDermitt can neither confirm nor deny whether he'll be in season 2 of "Stranger Things" ... but does have a funny way of explaining his run-in with the kid stars.

We got the 'Walking Dead' actor Tuesday at LAX, where our camera guy grilled McDermitt about a pic he posted Monday with 3 of the boys from the Netflix show ... with hashtags like #CrossoverEpisode fueling rumors he'll star in the upcoming season.

Like Josh says ... he can't talk about that. But he's happy to deadpan his way through their meetup in Portland.

ZOMBIES, BEWARE ... a couple of MLB stars just got some heavy-duty undead killing weaponry in the form of Lucille, the iconic barbed wire covered baseball bat from "The Walking Dead."

BTW -- if you don't watch 'TWD' (which you should), Lucille is wielded by the ultimate scumbag/badass Negan ... and was used in one of the most brutal scenes in television history earlier this season.

That brutality didn't stop J.D. Martinez of the Tigers and Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers from fanning out when replicas of Lucille were delivered to their team's spring training earlier Friday, courtesy of the show's production.

R.I.P. to Glenn and Abraham.

Thomas Payne's setting the record straight -- the character he plays on "The Walking Dead" is NOT gay ... not that there's anything wrong with that.

We caught up with Thomas at LAX Wednesday and asked him about a recent interview where he seemed to insinuate his character, Jesus, is gay. Thomas says people misunderstood him a bit, but he still thinks the world's ready for the concept.