Get ready for ‘The Walking Dead’ season 7 with our preview looking ahead at everything about to unfold…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
‘The Walking Dead’ returns on Sunday night with season 7 kicking off on AMC at 9pm ET and the question that has haunted everyone since April will finally be answered.
Who was the victim of Negan’s vengeful girlfriend Lucille?
It was the cliffhanger that left everyone in the dark for the entire summer after the writers and producers behind ‘The Walking Dead’ decided to keep a secret the person who was beaten to death by a barbed-wire baseball bat during the season 6 finale.
A great many people — myself included — criticized ‘The Walking Dead’ for not revealing Negan’s victim in the finale, but the lingering question will definitely have millions upon millions of fans tuning into the debut this weekend to find out who got killed.
Outside of that lone blemish, ‘The Walking Dead’ season 6 finale was a phenomenal episode from start to finish with the introduction of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan — the most ominous bad guy from the entire comic book universe created by Robert Kirkman.
Now as season 7 picks up, Negan’s victim will not only be revealed but how he terrorizes Rick and the rest of the survivors this season will be unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed before on this show.
Add to that another new community called ‘The Kingdom’ joins the fray this season with a very popular character debuting as well.
With that said, let’s look ahead at ‘The Walking Dead’ with anything and everything you need to know about season 7.
Negan’s Victim
Let’s just go ahead and tackle the million dollar question right now — who was Negan’s victim?
There have been a million theories and rumors ever since the last season ended with people going as far as stalking the sets of ‘The Walking Dead’ in Georgia just trying to figure out who is still filming and who isn’t showing up for work any longer. When rumors about Steven Yeun (Glenn) started popping up as a potential candidate to play Nightwing in the DC Extended Universe, fans all over speculated that he was the person to get cracked with Negan’s bat.
Then came the season preview clip that AMC released just recently that showed Negan taunting Rick after he unleashed his vengeance on one of the survivors. Rick had a splash of blood on the right side of his face, which led everyone to believe that the victim must have been somebody to the right of him after Negan had everyone line up and get on their knees. Then there was the clue that Daryl’s blanket was seen laying on the ground at the end of the shot after it was wrapped around his shoulders when the scene started. Then there was speculation that perhaps two people got bashed to death to make an even bigger impact on the show.
The truth is AMC isn’t going to let any footage out that would give away the secret about Negan’s victim and all of this was carefully planned to get everybody involved in guessing who got kissed by Lucille.
Here’s my theory:
If Negan’s arrival is going to be monumental — much like he arrived in issue No. 100 in the comic books — killing anyone other than a main character just wouldn’t have much of an impact. In his first appearance in the comic, Negan kills Glenn and so that would be the obvious choice to follow suit on the show.
A lot of people have argued against this possibility considering ‘The Walking Dead’ already did a fake death for Glenn last season before revealing that he was still alive. The uproar about his possible death convinced most fans that the producers wouldn’t dare try to do it again.
Still, Glenn is a season one original therefore he remains at the top of the chopping block.
Daryl Dixon is the other prime candidate as much as that might pain longtime viewers of the show. Daryl has never existed in ‘The Walking Dead’ comic book so there’s no way to tell how his storyline will end, but his exit would be the biggest death in the history of the show and there’s no better way to guarantee fans will hate Negan than to let him kill the lone remaining Dixon brother. In the preview clip from season 3, Negan also taunts Rick about having a “right hand man” and that could mean Daryl has already been taken from him.
Abraham has also been another popular choice, although his death wouldn’t seem to be as big as some of the others might be. While he is an iconic character from the comic, Abraham hasn’t quite had the same impact on the show just yet and his death while tragic, wouldn’t be as huge as some of the others.
Michonne is another legacy character who could be a surprise death to start the season. She’s still alive in the comic books, but that doesn’t mean she’s untouchable by any means. Andrea is still alive in the comics and she’s been dead on the show for several seasons now. Plus, Michonne doesn’t have a relationship with Rick in the comics but she’s romantically involved with him on the show and that makes her even more valuable to the survivor’s fearless leader.
Outside of those few characters, it’s hard to imagine anyone else having the same impact to start season 7 of ‘The Walking Dead’. And yes, I do realize that I left out Maggie, but if I was placing a bet on the most untouchable “legacy” character in that lineup, she would be the one I’d guess has no chance of being killed in the premiere.
Rick’s Arm
One other thing to watch out for in the debut — in that preview clip released by AMC, Negan grabs Rick’s hatchet before pulling him into the trailer and shutting the door behind him.
In the comics, Rick actually has his arm cut off by the Governor early on in the series in one of the most shocking moments for readers. The show decided not to follow suit because shooting Andrew Lincoln with only one arm for the rest of the series seemed impossibly tough.
That being said, Negan chopping off one of Rick’s hands as punishment appears more likely now than ever before.
Considering ‘The Walking Dead’ is the biggest show on TV and the budgets is undoubtedly rather large these days, the effects department would probably have no issue making Rick a one handed leader from here on out.
How Bad is Negan?
A lot of fans of the show who never read the comic may have no idea just how bad things are about to get for Rick and the survivors, but understanding the true nature of Negan is knowing that ‘The Walking Dead’ just took a dramatic turn for the worse.
Negan is a force of nature.
The best way to understand Negan is to know that he’s not a sociopath hell bent on mayhem. Negan is a thinking man’s dictator, who realized after the zombies started walking the Earth that only the strong would survive. So he gathered a force of loyal followers and set out to become the protection for the colonies that surrounded that area in northern Virginia.
Negan and his group ‘The Saviors’ would clear out zombies and keep the area protected and in exchange, the colonies gave him half their supplies. Of course over time, Negan realized that it’s much easier to take than to give so now he rules everybody with an iron fist and if you don’t give him half your shit, then he’s going to bash your brains in. It’s as simple as that.
Negan is charismatic and funny but also savage and unrelenting. He’s also the biggest of the big bads that has ever haunted ‘The Walking Dead’ so think of him as the Joker to Rick Grime’s Batman — except only worse. As brutal as Negan is in his practice, he also inspires a lot of loyalty from his followers, but he also dishes out a healthy amount of fear as well.
Don’t forget, Dwight was a character we first met after he was running away from Negan before he was captured and returned. When we next saw him, Dwight’s girlfriend was gone and half his face had been charred off courtesy of Negan.
“What’s most important to him is survival and kind of ruling with an iron fist,” Negan’s portrayer Jeffrey Dean Morgan said.
Make no mistake, Negan’s arrival is a game changer for this show and it’s hard to imagine that ‘The Walking Dead’ will ever be the same again with his arrival.
The Kingdom
This season of ‘The Walking Dead’ will also introduce another colony known as ‘The Kingdom’ and their ruler, King Ezekiel.
Ezekiel has a pet tiger named Shiva, who will also join the series this year, and he will welcome Morgan and Carol into his community after some of his men helped save them last season. King Ezekiel is a good, fair man who is friends with Paul Monroe aka Jesus and his community has been trading with the Hilltop for quite some time.
Now, King Ezekiel and the Kingdom have fallen under Negan’s control and he hates the megalomaniacal dictator and his brutal reign of terror.
With Morgan and Carol arriving in the Kingdom, it will be interesting to see how Ezekiel and the rest of his people eventually meet up with Rick and the survivors at Alexandria. If the show follows the comic in any way, Rick and Ezekiel will eventually become friends and allies.
The Debut Episode Will Be Heartbreaking
According to executive producer Greg Nicotero, the death that’s revealed at the beginning of the episode is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tragedy during ‘The Walking Dead’ season 7 premiere.
“There’s so much more than happens in that episode that is more heartbreaking than that moment, that by the time the episode is over, it’s almost too much. It’s that intense,” Nicotero said.
And from there, things only get worse.
Negan is a brutal, vicious ruler who does not take well to people disobeying him and there’s little doubt that Rick Grimes is going to be anybody’s servant without a fight. But you’ll soon find out that the more Rick fights back, the harder Negan is going to punish him.
“This season is intense,” Nicotero teased. “It’s the first time you’ve ever seen Rick Grimes scared.
“The end of the last season, what show do you know where the hero is completely stripped of all of his power, in front of everyone. Not knowing where we’re going from there, it just keeps getting worse. It goes lower and lower and lower and lower.”
‘The Walking Dead’ season 7 debuts this Sunday night at 9pm ET on AMC and stay tuned for a full recap from Nerdcore Movement after the episode airs.
