SURVIVORS SET FOR A BATTLE
The Walking Dead returns, fight with Negan looms
Alanna Masterson has been on the defensive lately.
Presumably, everyone involved with AMC’s The Walking Dead has been. It’s all because of that first half of Season 7.
That’s where we found out in gruesome detail which zombieapocalypse survivors got pulverized by Negan’s barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat. Then we watched as once indefatigable heroes Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) became whimpering shadows of their former selves, seemingly resolved to a new world order where the maniacal Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his Saviors govern the living through fear.
Masterson is not a writer so had no control over the story arc. Her character, Tara Chambler, hasn’t even been involved in most of the interactions with the Saviors up to this point. Still, she’s been on the defensive.
“Even my friends, for the first half of the season, were like, ‘When are you going to kill this dude?,’ ” says Masterson. “They were getting so angry at me. I was saying ‘Guys, first of all, don’t get angry at me, I didn’t do anything.’ I think now that we’re willing to fight back and do whatever it takes to destroy this man who’s so awful, I think everyone — audience, cast — are going to be so excited to see us unite as a group.”
It’s the great promise of Season 7’s second half, which begins Sunday on AMC. There was a collective sigh of relief from Walking Dead’s fan base when Rick, Darryl, Tara, Carl, Maggie, Michonne and the other survivors finally seemed to reach an enough-is-enough point when it comes to Negan’s tyranny.
Sunday’s episode will focus on the group’s attempts to recruit other factions for the upcoming battle. But it’s a testament to the passion of the fans that so many have taken the grim reality facing The Walking Dead heroes so personally.
In January, series producer Gale Anne Hurd said the show toned down the violence due to the criticism of Season 7’s graphic opening episode. But showrunner Scott M. Gimple and director Greg Nicotero denied the claim, insisting nothing had been toned down.
Masterson agrees, saying she hasn’t seen any evidence that producers are lightening up. She acknowledges the first half of the season was extremely dark, but that it served a narrative purpose.
“I think it sets up what we’re going to do as a group against (Negan) and his camp,” Masterson says. “I think if it hadn’t been dark, maybe people wouldn’t have been as excited when the group decides to stand up to them. They would have been like, ‘Oh yeah, you can take them out.’ It wouldn’t have been that much of a challenge.”
Still, if fans were so unsettled by the gruesome deaths of Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) in Episode 1, how do these sudden departures impact the rest of the cast?
“We’re in Atlanta for eight months of the year and we don’t really have any friends or family out there,” Masterson says. “These are our friends and family, so we’ve become very close. Some of us have got married, a lot of us have had babies (including Masterson, who had a daughter in November). We’ve experienced some pretty awesome life things together as a group.”
As for whether she fears the same fate that befell Glenn and Abraham might eventually befall Tara, Masterson says the uncertainty can be “a little bit scary.” But she has got used to the idea that these decisions are out of her hands.
“If it happens, it happens,” she says.
“What’s great about it is that it’s never, ‘Oh, let’s kill someone.’ There’s always a reason and Scott (Gimple) will always do you justice when you leave.”
Tara is The Walking Dead’s first LGBT character, which Masterson admits didn’t strike her as that big of a deal. At least not at first.
“People have come up to me to say, ‘I had a hard time telling my parents I was gay and I felt because they watched the show with me and they love your character so much it was easier,’” she says.
“I was raised in such a cool environment with my family that from the time I was a little kid, I never saw anyone or anything as different no matter what colour, religion, sexual orientation. For me, I didn’t think I was carrying the weight of all these people. And then the more I got to meet the fans, the more I saw I did hold some importance to them. It made me feel really good.”
I think if it hadn’t been dark, maybe people wouldn’t have been as excited when the group decides to stand up to them.