Jeffrey Dean Morgan analyzes Negan's 'Walking Dead' debut
Spoiler alert: This story contains details from Sunday's Season 6 finale of AMC's The Walking Dead.
Fans of The Walking Dead may not want to wait six months to learn who Negan bludgeoned to death in Sunday's Season 6 finale, but they will find out right away when the hit AMC drama returns in the fall.
Season 7 will "kick off directly from where we left it (that) night," says Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the charismatic, bat-wielding import from the popular comic-book series. "You're going to see who's at the end of that bat and what happens from there."
Morgan, speaking during a Monday conference call, acknowledges that some fans aren't pleased that the show didn't reveal which member of Rick's group succumbed to Lucille, Negan's barbed-wire-covered bat.
"That was the end of the story for that season and that is that Rick has lost control and there's Negan. And Negan has all the control," Morgan says, discussing how producers explained the episode to him. "It's not about the death of that person. The death of that person is going to kick off Season 7."
Executive producer Scott M. Gimple seconds those sentiments in a separate conference call, saying Sunday's finale shows that "where Rick winds up is completely different from where he started" at the beginning of the season and at the start of the second half.
Asked whether the victim cliffhanger might test viewers' patience after Glenn (Steven Yeun) avoided a swarm of walkers and Daryl (Norman Reedus) survived a point-blank gunshot during earlier episodes this season, Gimple says: "I think if you approach it with the idea that there's some sort of negative (or) cynical motivation behind it … it would be difficult to convince you otherwise. I do think we've done enough on the show and delivered a story that people have enjoyed to ask people to give us the benefit of the doubt that it is all part of a plan. I hope people see (the Season 7 premiere) and they feel it justifies the way we've decided to tell the story."
The world is going to open up more in Season 7 as Dead will look at Rick's group, Alexandria, Negan's Saviors and the Hilltop colony. A new group will be represented, too, although Gimple would not confirm that characters who encounter Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol (Melissa McBride) in the Season 6 finale are members of The Kingdom, another community in executive producer Robert Kirkman's comic books.
"There's going to be probably the biggest variety of stories we've had yet. I can say that things are going to start off very, very, very dark," Gimple says. "But that won't be the whole season. It's not going to be darkness upon darkness. I'm very excited for all the individual characters' journeys."
One of those characters is Negan, whom Morgan was reluctant to classify too harshly, especially when compared to Rick (Andrew Lincoln).
"I never approach it like he's the bad guy. … He's a car salesman and he has survived as long as Rick and his gang. What has he done to get there?" Morgan says. "Rick just killed 20 of (Negan's) men. I feel like Rick is getting off really easy here."
Executive producer Greg Nicotero, who directed the finale, says Morgan is a great choice for Negan. "He's got a fantastic charisma about him, just like Andy Lincoln does," he says. "We don't want him to play too arch or evil, (but) the fact he has a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire named (Lucille) is a little creepy."