‘ THE WALKING DEAD’
Rick has a plan for baddie Negan — and it may even work
It’s time to fight. After a season in which Rick Grimes & Co. struggled to recover after being battered into submission by Negan and his Saviors, The Walking Dead’s survivors return with guns blazing in the eighth- season premiere of AMC’s hit series ( Sunday, 9ET/ PT).
Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick, says the opener ( also the drama’s 100th episode) lives up to the phrase “All Out War,” the theme in the Dead comic books on which the zombie- heavy series is based.
“It’s an action- packed episode. You’re sowing the seeds for a very thrilling, energetic, combustible war,” he says. “It’s much quicker than last year. It’s bigger, braver in storytelling and bloodier than we’ve ever done before.”
The fight against Negan ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is notable for another reason, too, Lincoln says.
“This is the first time in 100 episodes that Rick has come up with a really good plan. So hold onto your seats, ladies and gentlemen!”
For Rick and his allies, “There’s a swagger in their step, and from the first showdown with Negan at The Sanctuary, you get a sense there’s amuch more equal footing between the two groups now.”
The tone differs from Season 7, building on the characters’ recovery from a brutal low, executive producer Scott M. Gimple says.
“The first half of last season was dealing with the incredible trauma all the characters went through,” he says. “In the second half, they have this rebellion. There is a certain amount of joy, tempered by the seriousness.”
Nevertheless, Gimple says it was difficult to watch beloved characters laid low.
“These are relationships formed over years and years. Characters become basically family members,” he says. “They go through difficult times and they are strong enough to get through them.”
The still- top- rated cable series suffered a ratings decline in Season 7, and the story, focused on comic- book baddie Negan, wasn’t as well- received by some fans.
In the new season, Rick remains committed to killing Negan, who pulverized Glenn and Abraham with Lucille, his baseball bat, and terrorized others.
Rick “wants revenge and justice,” Lincoln says, but he can’t let emotion rule. “There’s an impulsiveness that he has to keep in check, that it is about people fighting together for the greater good.”
Gimple hints at a resolution of the Rick-Negan standoff. “They see no other way forward than the destruction of one another, so there’s going to have to be a reckoning at some point.”
Neither Lincoln nor Gimple will explain “Old Rick,” the graybeard version of the hero seen briefly in the Season 8 trailer. Gimple promises answers regarding the older version of the character, who appears Sunday, by the second half of the split season, due in early 2018.
Dead also explores characters from The Hilltop, The Kingdom and other recently introduced groups, following a cross- pollination of communities, Gimple says.
Rick finds himself working with other leaders, including longtime ally Maggie ( Lauren Cohan), now in charge at The Hilltop, and King Ezekiel ( Khary Payton) of The Kingdom.
“It’s much more of a United Nations of people with the same ideas of what the future looks like,” Lincoln says.
Gimple sees a long TV future for Dead, especially since the comic book, from fellow executive producer Robert Kirkman, continues.
“We would like to tell the story from the book and, who knows, even go beyond that,” Gimple says.