On Sunday, Season 5 of "The Walking Dead" will premiere, and star Lauren Cohan said it will be the best episode viewers have ever seen.

"I feel like this is our best episode of the show yet," Cohan told Entertainment Weekly Radio on Friday.

Cohan, who plays Maggie Greene on the AMC series, says watching the first episode of the new season took her on "a journey."

"I was there when we made it and I was still so floored," she said. "I felt so much trepidation and then such excitement about the strength of the group. It's been really exciting the levels we can take the show [to] now. It's been like feature films every time, but this time it's just a bigger and much deeper, darker expensive movie."

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Scott M. Gimple, "The Walking Dead" showrunner, explained how much of an influence Robert Kirkman's comic books, from which the TV show is based, are on Season 5.

"Last season, there was some invention there, but it was taken from the books. ... And there's stuff like that this year," he said. "And then there's some stuff that is way, way back that we missed, that we didn't get to. Maybe not the most giant things from the comics, but people will recognize them."

According to Cohan, one of the scenes in Sunday's premiere was adapted from the comic books and will shock readers.

"Fans of the comic, there are going to be a couple of moments that scare you more than anything," she said. "I won't say too much about that, but that was one of the most tense moments in there. You'll know what I mean."

A confirmed addition from the comic books is the character of Father Gabriel, played by Seth Gilliam ("The Wire").

"He was guilty in the comic for doing something bad," Gimple said. "It could be that somebody did something really bad to him. We've done stuff that extreme before in the past. Robert is very much game to play around with stuff he's done before. But will it have a connection to that story? Definitely."

Season 5 of "The Walking Dead" begins on AMC on Oct. 12 at 9/8 c.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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