Along with a roomful of journalists, Daily Dead participated in The Walking Dead press conference at this summer's Comic-Con in San Diego, and our third round of highlights feature reflections on the show's past and teases of its future from Robert Kirkman, Danai Gurira, Lauren Cohan, Steven Yeun, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Michael Cudlitz.
Robert Kirkman on bringing more characters from the comics into the show:
Robert Kirkman: We'll always be bringing characters from the comics. We're reaching that point where Ezekiel was in the storyline and so it's just a natural progression. As we move through the storyline we'll be bringing some characters up sooner and some characters up later and stuff like that, but there will definitely be other characters that you can see this season and some surprises coming. Be on the lookout for that, but right now it's all about Ezekiel and Shiva as far as new characters, so it's going to be great.
Steven Yeun on staying out of public view when his character was presumed dead in season six, and avoiding giving anything away for season seven:
Steven Yeun: Dumpster team, or whatever it's called—that was tough because I pretty much literally holed up in the apartment, and that's actually a career thing to think about nowadays. When you do sign on to do a show that is long-running, in this day and age, you're not just signing up to be an actor on a show. You're signing up for a specific lifestyle to a degree, which is a very interesting thing that was new to me. I literally holed up and rarely came out, just for the month, and then in terms of the extra questions that I obviously gave due to the comic, and based on the last season, that's just been easy for me, too, because again it is easy to say nothing.
Robert Kirkman on the different communities emerging in the expanding world of The Walking Dead:
We have these groups and these different areas. Some of these groups we have only seen certain hints of, like The Saviors. They exist in their own society, and we see that. We talked about the Kingdom, that's their own place. We saw Tara in some weird place. There's Alexandria. With these places, how different characters, how different situations differ, ways of life here... we're expanding literally these different locations, but also the type of characters we see and the kinds of lives that they lead.
Kirkman on the decision to use CGI to portray Ezekiel’s pet tiger, Shiva:
I was asking Scott [M. Gimple], "How are we planning on doing this thing?" He pointed out that it's not particularly humane to have a live tiger on set and is also very dangerous for the actors… So I was like, "Great. No real tiger. I can still come to set, that sounds awesome," because I would not have gone to set, if there had been a real tiger anywhere near set. There's no real tiger involved. It's all magic.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan on filming multiple takes of future Negan scenes to incorporate the character’s uncensored language:
Yes, we will. I'm going to say, not every scene. It's the noble stuff. We're not doing two takes of every scene where we just add the word “fuck.”
Kirkman on potentially incorporating a snowy winter setting down the line on The Walking Dead:
I will say one way or another... I make no promises, but I would be shocked if we didn't, but it would be special if we did it.
Danai Gurira on the confidence of Rick’s group and Michonne’s romantic relationship with Rick:
We are very agile, we are very agile mentally with strategy... all these different strengths, and so we're all ready to do what we got to do. We developed a pretty legitimized confidence. It was very interesting that the beginning of it for Michonne is she's in bed with Rick. I found shooting that was really fascinating. I was talking to Steven about it. I loved that it was really amazing how Andrew played it because he was so confident. It was a confidence that was almost over the top, but there was something right there. It was such a perfect way of stepping into what we were about to step into, because it really was like, "How can I top this?" This is a pure, 100% proof confidence right here. I'm going to go with it. It was a legitimate amount of confidence, but maybe we didn't realize the world was going to get that much bigger that fast.
Lauren Cohan on the hope Maggie carries for the group with her pregnancy:
If we just think about the theme of pregnancy, Maggie's a hopeful character. She's deciding that it's a good idea that the world in the future will hold a place for her child. I think that's so important. I think that for the group in what Judith has given us and in the repeated rising from the ashes that we have all experienced up to this point. The lesson that I take from character progression and from [what] we see in the shows, there will be suffering and that's inevitable, but who do you become and what do you learn and how much deeper is your spiritual connection and your connection to those that you love because of how you've suffered.
Ultimately, somebody asked early, "The place your character's at now, what would you tell four-years-ago Maggie or four-years-ago Glen?" I wouldn't tell her anything, because she needs to experience those things to be where she is. As crazy and as strife-ridden as their lives are, she—and all of us—has wisdom. That wisdom is so golden and valuable. It's a horrible, crazy world, but we have a trial of belonging and we know who we are and we know who we are to each other and that's just absolutely invaluable.
Michael Cudlitz on Abraham ending his relationship with Rosita to be with Sasha:
There was a lot going on. I don't think that Abraham fully understood how to get out of that relationship. Early on it was a relationship of convenience for both of them. Rosita talks about how he used her physical appearance and her feminine wiles to sort of survive the world that she was in. He took advantage of that and used that to help her survive. She also says that Abraham was the first man she came in contact with who didn't want anything from her. Over that time… we don't talk about it in the show, but that's where I always put his history with her.
They grew together. He saw someone who was strong, intelligent, who was not going about it the right way, but she was able to adapt and she was strong and she learned and she became a soldier. In a lot of ways it was convenience. He fell in love with her, but it wasn't the kind of love that can propel you. It can sustain itself over time, but he also [had] nothing to get out of that so when she kept saying, "Why, why, why, why?" It's almost like a Black Beauty moment. He doesn't know what to say. He's like, "Get out of here, I hate you," he said, like, "What can I say to her that would be the cruelest thing to end this conversation?" Yeah, he probably picked the shittiest way possible to do it.
A line by Mr. Seth Hoffman: "Why are dabble berries brown?" That's the way she is… He did believe she was the last one on earth and they were well-suited for each other, were that the case. Basically, because he found someone who is amazing in all of the ways that he could move forward with in Sasha and someone that he not only cared for deeply, but fell very quickly of a much more pure love than [he] really could recognize with what he had prior with his wife pre-apocalypse.
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In case you missed it, check out our previous highlights from The Walking Dead Comic-Con press conference:
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