Filming 'The Walking Dead' proves emotionally and physically draining for its star

The hardest part of Andrew Lincoln’s job has become the emotional goodbyes to close friends — after they’ve been devoured by zombies.

At least he and the rest of the dwindling survivors among the cast of “The Walking Dead” get the chance to send off their fallen comrades properly, with a tradition that’s become known on the set as “death dinners.”

“It is an occupational hazard that I never saw when I first signed on — that I would make the closest and most beautiful, intimate friendships by the nature of the world and the stories that........

we’re telling,” Lincoln tells the Daily News. “And then one by one, they will get bit [by rabid zombies] — and generally speaking, I kill them.

“There’s also a hall of fame in [the production offices], but I like to call it ‘The Hall of Maim,’ ” he adds, laughing. “Where you have a picture and your character name and when you passed away into zombie heaven. Yeah, this has become the landscape of my life.”

Break out the silverware, because those dinners aren’t ending anytime soon.

The third season of the hit AMC series begins Sunday at 9 p.m., and judging by the first two installments of the 16-episode season, the poor souls who died earlier in the saga might just be the lucky ones. (Eight episodes will run in the fall, with the season resuming again in February.)

“I don’t believe anyone is safe,” says Glen Mazzara, one of the executive producers. “They might be safe for now, but over the life of the show, nobody is safe. I’ve had conversations with the writers about the demise of every single character that’s been on screen.”

Picking up several months after Rick Grimes (Lincoln) was forced to kill his best friend, Shane, or be killed, the former sheriff and his band are barely eking out an existence in a Georgia countryside that’s increasingly infested with the roving undead. Grimes’ pregnant wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), is close to term, and the group needs to find a haven before the baby is born.

Salvation seems to come in the form of a looming prison with its potential supply of canned food and secure beds — if the group can avoid getting eaten while hacking their way through countless zombie guards and prisoners in the pitch-black tunnels.

“Downton Abbey” this is not.

“It’s so brutal,” says Lincoln. “The only thing that I can equate Rick’s journey to is Job in the Bible. He’s being tested beyond all tests.

“I’ve always been intrigued about where is his breaking point. And I think this season we find out.”

That’s because the zombies are the least of the group’s problems. Nearby is the seemingly idyllic Woodbury, Ga., a small town of survivors run by a charismatic man known as the Governor (David Morrissey). Fans of Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” comic books, on which the series is based, are already hiding under their couch cushions with an inkling of the carnage to come.

Also being introduced this season is another fan-favorite character, Michonne (played by “Treme’s” Danai Gurira), a badass who was glimpsed in the season-two finale packing a samurai sword and two limbless zombies as pets.