The Walking Dead Season 6 finale featured one of the most pivotal scenes yet, and in case you missed Negan and Lucille's introduction, AMC has released the ending clip online, while executive producers Scott M. Gimple and Gale Anne Hurd reflected on the finale (and its cliffhanger) and looked ahead to Season 7. [Spoiler Warning for those who haven't watched the Season 6 finale.]
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Gimple mentioned that the beginning of Season 7 will help show why they ended the episode without revealing who was killed by Negan and his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille:
"I hope with 701 people see that it justifies the way we've decided to tell the story. I know what 701 is and I feel that it delivers on what 616 sets up."
Gimple emphasized that someone did indeed die at the end of the finale and that it will have a big impact on the survivors regardless of who was on the receiving end of Lucille:
"What's coming up is going to change everything with the story. Whether [the finale victim] is a fairly new or a fairly OG character, there is a long-running plan to this show and someone will meet their end."
In looking ahead to Season 7, Gimple revealed that the theme of the upcoming episodes is "How do you begin again?", and, [Spoiler Warning for those who haven't read the comics], although he did not confirm that the armor-clad men Morgan and Carol encountered are from the Kingdom, he did tease the potential unveiling of the land ruled by Ezekiel:
"...if we do see the Kingdom, it'll be a big reveal and it will be another new world to inhabit and explore."
Gimple also commented on whether or not a real tiger will be used on the show to portray Ezekiel's pet, Shiva:
"Can we have a real tiger? We can have a lot of things and people will have to wait and see," he said. "But if I were just watching the show, I'd want to see that tiger."
[Spoiler Warning from the comics.] The respect Negan has for Carl in the comics was discussed by Gimple, who teased that another character might be admired by Negan on the show:
"There's going to be a bit of remixing and there may be another character involved who takes some of it. That relationship will be absolutely shown. Whether it's with Carl or not, I can not say."
Speaking with Deadline, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd also talked about what viewers can expect from Season 7:
"Season 7 certainly is going to be all about the game-changer that is Negan and what that means to the world of The Walking Dead and all of the characters in it."
Hurd addressed the months-long wait for fans to see who died following the finale's fade to black accompanied by the sounds of someone's skull being pulverized by Lucille:
"Yes, it can be incredibly challenging to wait, to not know one way or the other. But that’s within the rules of The Walking Dead universe."
Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more coverage on The Walking Dead, including an exclusive interview with Andrew Lincoln. In the meantime, you can watch the Season 6 ending clip online courtesy of AMC, as well as a featurette in which the cast and crew reflect on the events of the past season:
Alternate embed via SpoilerTV:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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