Wait, what?! The Walking Dead fans have been on the edge of their couches, eager to find out who was on the receiving end of baddie Negan’s barbed wire–covered bat, Lucille, since April when the season 6 finale ended with blood hitting the darkened screen.
Now it turns out viewers of AMC’s zombie drama may have even more reason to mourn.
Executive producer Greg Nicotero let slip in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly that the season premiere might reveal more than one death at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s vicious Negan.
“I was a little surprised that some of our viewers were angered by that,” the special-effects guru said when asked about fan reaction to the finale cliffhanger that left everyone guessing about who the villain’s victim could be. “If we would have shown the deaths, then they wouldn’t have felt our characters in season 7 the way they need to. And the thing that I think a lot of people will get out of it is how that moment changes the entire makeup of our universe within a split second.”
Did you catch that? “Deaths.” Plural.
Eagle-eyed fans have already speculated that Carol, Morgan and Tara will likely not be meeting Lucille, as all three appear in the season 7 teaser.
And a birthday message for singer Demi Lovato last month featuring Andrew Lincoln (Rick), Norman Reedus (Daryl), Steven Yeun (Glenn) and Josh McDermitt (Eugene) seems to suggest the four actors will survive.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=TUP-zlGzI64
Add to the mix that Michael Cudlitz said in an interview with Pop Sugar last month that his character, Abraham, “will continue for a while,” and the pool of potential victims shrinks fairly significantly.
Consider that it appeared Negan selected only one unlucky person in the season 6 finale. With that in mind, fans might reasonably conclude that his victim could be Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who is pregnant with Glenn’s child and in need of medical attention, the reason why Rick & Co. hit the road in the first place, leading to their capture.
But until season 7 kicks off and makes the big reveal, the guessing game will continue.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC Sunday, October 23, at 9 p.m. ET.
