Negan wades into the ‘Dead’ as Season 6 ends
Fans of The Walking Dead may not want to wait six months to learn whom Negan bludgeoned to death in Sunday’s Season 6 finale, but they’ll find out as soon as AMC’s hit drama returns in October.
Season 7 will “kick off directly from where we left it,” says Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the charismatic, bat-wielding import from the comic-book series. “You’re going to see who’s at the end of that bat and what happens from there.”
Morgan acknowledges some fans weren’t pleased that the show didn’t reveal which member of Rick’s group succumbed to Lucille, Negan’s barbed-wirecovered bat.
“Rick has lost control (and) Negan has all the control,” he says. “The death of that person is going to kick off Season 7.”
Executive producer Scott M. Gimple says Sunday’s finale shows that “where Rick winds up is completely different from where he started” in February episodes.
Asked whether the who’s-the-victim cliffhanger might test viewers’ patience after Glenn (Steven Yeun) avoided a swarm of walkers and Daryl (Norman Reedus) survived a point-blank gunshot in earlier episodes this season, Gimple says: “I think if you approach it with the idea that there’s some sort of negative (or) cynical motivation behind it … it would be difficult to convince you otherwise. I do think we’ve done enough on the show and delivered a story that people have enjoyed to ask people to give us the benefit of the doubt that it is all part of a plan. I hope people feel (the seventh-season premiere) justifies the way we’ve decided to tell the story.”
The new season will see Dead’s focus shift to Rick’s group, Alexandria, Negan’s Saviors and the Hilltop colony. A new group will be represented, too, although Gimple would not confirm that characters who encountered Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol (Melissa McBride) in Season 6’s finale are members of The Kingdom, another community in executive producer Robert Kirkman’s comic books.
“There’s going to be probably the biggest variety of stories we’ve had yet. I can say that things are going to start off very, very, very dark,” Gimple says. “But that won’t be the whole season. It’s not going to be darkness upon darkness. I’m very excited for all the individual characters’ journeys.”
One of those characters is Negan, whom Morgan was reluctant to classify too harshly, especially when compared to Rick (Andrew Lincoln).
“I never approach it like he’s the bad guy. … He’s a car salesman and he has survived as long as Rick and his gang. What has he done to get there?” Morgan says. “Rick just killed 20 of (Negan’s) men. I feel like Rick is getting off really easy here.”
Executive producer Greg Nicotero, who directed the finale, says Morgan is a great choice for Negan. “He’s got a fantastic charisma about him, just like Andy Lincoln does,” he says. “We don’t want him to play too arch or evil, ( but) the fact he has a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire named (Lucille) is a little creepy.”