We're back with more highlights from The Walking Dead press conference at Comic-Con, which Daily Dead was honored to participate in with other journalists.
This time around, the onscreen father/son duo of Andrew Lincoln and Chandler Riggs reflect on the many characters who have been killed off around them over the past six seasons (and in the upcoming seventh season), Lincoln talks about how Rick is at his most vulnerable in the season seven premiere, and Greg Nicotero teases upcoming walkers and how closely the show will follow Robert Kirkman's comic book series moving forward:
Lincoln on Rick being vulnerable to Negan and how he may have underestimated The Saviors:
I think hubris was very much a conflict in Rick. I think it was probably a good strategic… it was probably the right thing to do, but with too much pride behind it. He's powerless for the first time since he woke up from the coma. He's truly got to fight for his and his child's life and his family, and everything he's fought death for and had family members die for and everything they've worked for two years to get has been shattered in twenty-four hours. He's not in a good space and I think if he makes it through the first episode, he will be a different man. He can't help it.
Nicotero on how closely the show will follow the comics moving forward:
From season one, the goal was always to use the comic as a road map, but never make it so that if you read the comic you would be bored in the show. It was always that the show has to have a life of its own—the actors, the writers, the directors are all bringing things to the show. What I would say is this season and the plan to come are very much the same in the sense that we're going to be hitting a lot of the milestones that those of you familiar with the comic will recognize, and obviously you saw [in] the trailer, King Ezekiel coming is a big thing.
There will be a lot of swerves. There will be things that you don't expect. There will be things that you'll go, "I recognize that beat the way that it was…” So it's the same moment from a different lens. There's going to be a lot of that kind of stuff, but yes, it will be the same strategies zigging and zagging around.
Lincoln on the infectious focus of the cast and crew:
We're lucky in these shows that everyone is convincing and there's an atmosphere on set that we're going to have the best story every scene, and I think that it's infectious. You get onto set and you see somebody emoting and you start forgetting about [the] camera. The cool thing about that as well is we have a crew that has been incredibly loyal to this show… They feel the same focus. There's a feeling on set. There's an energy that's about just trying to do better. Being fearless, for me, I don't talk about it because that's sacred. It's a sacred space… It is a sacred space and there's a uniqueness and it's luck and it's magic. Sometimes you get lucky. This show with the cast that we have, you get lucky a lot.
Nicotero on creating new types of walkers for season seven and his special effects team continuing to have a high level of passion for what they bring to the show:
There's some amazing stuff coming up. We came up with some pretty amazing gags that, again, all serve the story… Everything is very important to the storyline and intrinsic to the storyline. We also don't want to see the same zombies every single episode, so my team and I spend a lot of time just finessing things and fine-tuning things. Any artist that has an opportunity to revisit something and tweak and see what they thought worked and what didn't work well.. We're seven years [into] doing this. We did a walker on Wednesday on set and I'm like, "This is my favorite walker we've done ever since the beginning." They still bring the same enthusiasm to the job and that's critical. I would've thought at some point that they'd be like, "Fuck, we have to do another zombie," but they're still in it, they're still committed every day.
We take great pride in continuing to push the envelope and put stuff on television. Seven years ago there was nothing like this on TV from a storytelling standpoint, from an acting standpoint, from a makeup effects standpoint. The thing I'm most proud of is when someone will come up to me and say, "I want to be a makeup artist because I watch The Walking Dead." That's how I got into it was the movies I watched when I was a kid. The fact that I get to pay that forward to an entire new group of filmmakers is the greatest accomplishment.
Chandler Riggs, Andrew Lincoln, and Nicotero on the many characters killed off around them on the show over the years (and in the near future):
Chandler Riggs: Actually, it's been like that every year for the past seven years for both of us. Every time we lose someone, it sucks. It sucks. You hate to see them to go, but ultimately, what's most important for the show is the story and these deaths are what keeps the show moving forward.
Andrew Lincoln: The cool thing is that you get to see them at Comic Con. I'm seeing Jon Bernthal tonight, Sarah Wayne Callies tomorrow night. All the dead ones show up here.
Greg Nicotero: It is kind of cool that once you're on set and in character, you're never out of the club. You're always a part of it.
————
Check back soon for more comments from The Walking Dead Comic-Con press conference, and in case you missed it, check out our previous highlights from Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Greg Nicotero, Lauren Cohan, and Josh McDermitt:
Alternate International Embed
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
