'Walking Dead': Negan's Victim(s) Finally Revealed

[Penthius]

'Walking Dead': Negan's Victim(s) Finally Revealed
Following the polarizing season six finale, the AMC zombie drama killed off not one but two series regulars in Sunday's bloody premiere.



Courtesy of Gene Page/AMC
Following the polarizing season six finale, the AMC zombie drama killed off not one but two series regulars in Sunday's bloody premiere.

[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the season seven premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead, "The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be," as well as the comic book series it is based on.]

AMC's The Walking Dead pulled a massively violent one-two punch during Sunday's season seven premiere.

Months after the polarizing season six finale, the zombie drama based on Robert Kirkman's comics killed off not one but two series regulars during the episode. Exiting the zombie drama are Steven Yeun (Glenn Rhee), one of the show's remaining original stars, and fellow fan favorite Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford). (Glenn and Abraham ranked as the two characters most likely to die in a THR analysis following the season six finale. Glenn and Abraham also ranked first and second, respectively, in a THR reader poll.)

Glenn's death and Yeun's departure had been wildly anticipated. Yeun, sources told THR, only had a one-year deal that covered season six. Additionally, Glenn's death, at the hands of Negan largely mirrored the events of the landmark 100th issue of the comics in which the new villain uses Lucille, a bat covered in barbed wire, to savagely beat and shatter his skull as his friends and family looked on.

That The Walking Dead — which typically takes a remix approach to the source material under showrunner Scott M. Gimple — would kill off Glenn comes as the pre-apocalypse pizza delivery guy was finally forced to kill in the new world. In six seasons, Glenn had a strict moral code and refused to kill another living human. (Walkers, however, were fair game.) Last season, faced with the rising threat of Negan's dastardly Saviors, Glenn was forced to finally kill when Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) group attacked the Savior compound in an effort to quash the threat. Glenn's death in the season seven opener — which came when Negan killed him to prove a point to Daryl (Norman Reedus) following his outburst — shows the price in which the married and father-to-be had to pay for his actions.

Glenn's death also comes after the AMC series had repeatedly planted the seeds that the character would be killed via Negan and Lucille. Season six put Glenn at death's door multiple times, with the critically panned "dumpster episode" resulting in Yeun's name being subsequently removed from the opening credits. Other close calls included when Noah sacrificed himself to save Glenn in the revolving door of death scene; and the midseason premiere when Abraham saved Glenn from death by walkers as his back was against Alexandria's walls as he attempted to pull the undead away from his pregnant wife Maggie (Lauren Cohan). In perhaps the biggest nod to the moment, the season five opener nearly saw a guy at Terminus bash Glenn's head in with, yup, a baseball bat.

Abraham's death, meanwhile, comes after Cudlitz's character barely outlived his comic book counterpart. The former military hero was killed first in Sunday's episode, the result of Negan's "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" line that he delivers in the comics before landing on Glenn. Instead, the AMC series had Negan land on Abraham, who in the season six finale had volunteered to take one for the team. His death arrives as the character last season turned a new page — one filled with hope for a family, perhaps with Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green). The character, who in the comics was Rick's right-hand man but never really seemed to find a place to fit in on the AMC series given Daryl's existence, will impact both Sasha, former girlfriend Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt), the latter of whom learned how to protect himself thanks to Abraham.

On the page, Abraham was killed in The Walking Dead #98 when he is shot through the eye with an arrow — the same way in which the AMC series killed Merritt Wever's Denise in season six. In the comics, it was Dwight — the reluctant member of Negan's Saviors — who murders Abraham. (Dwight was also responsible for Denise's death as well on the series.)

"It's more pressure than we've ever felt," exec producer Kirkman told THR of pressure to remix the events of the comics. "We are changing things here and there as we always have done. To a certain extent, we're staying the course."

That both Glenn and Abraham would be killed off together comes as Abraham was inspired to start his own family in the new world after seeing Glenn care for pregnant wife Maggie. It sends another tough message for Sasha, who has now lost two romantic partners in Abraham and Bob.

Their deaths leave nine survivors who are now tasked with Negan's regular visits to the Alexandria Safe Zone where he expects to take half of their supplies. Left to contend with the charismatic killer are Rick, Michonne (Danai Gurira), Daryl — taken hostage by the Saviors; Rosita, Carl (Chandler Riggs), Maggie, Aaron (Ross Marquand), Eugene and Sasha.

Season seven finds The Walking Dead having opened with its largest cast to date with 21 series regulars. With Yeun and Cudlitz now gone, the tally is up one from top of season six and still an all-time high. The big roster comes as The Walking Dead is set to feature its most sprawling season yet as it branches off into four different communities: Alexandria with Rick's group; Negan's Saviors; Gregory's (new series regular Xander Berkeley) Hilltop community; and Ezekiel's (new regular Khary Payton) so-called Kingdom.

"Season seven as a whole will have so many new environments, so many new characters and so many new scenarios that it will almost seem like season one of an entirely different show," Kirkman told THR ahead of the premiere.

Stay tuned to THR.com/WalkingDead for complete coverage, including interviews, analysis and theories. The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC. What did you think of the premiere? Share your thoughts (and questions for the cast and producers) in the comments section below.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-who-does-negan-940640

[Penthius]

‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7 Premiere: Negan’s Victim Revealed In Bloody Opener
by Dominic Patten
and Ross A. Lincoln
October 23, 2016 7:06pm

 
walking-dead-season-7-debut-oct-23   

AMC

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of tonight’s Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead.

Related
'The Walking Dead' Season 7 Preview: Who Does Negan Kill? Is It [Spoiler]?

They said someone important would die and tonight we found out just who – eventually, anyway. Moving around in time, TWD tonight actually started with focus on a conflict between villain Negan and Rick Grimes occurring after the villain had killed one of the survivors. Prolonging the controversial cliffhanger that ended last season, viewers had to wait until after the second commercial break to find out just who died.

“You belong to me,” the Jeffrey Dean Morgan portrayed Negan tells Andrew Lincoln’s Rick after almost making him cut off his own son Carl’s arm. The line – and Negan’s taking of the Norman Reedus played Daryl Dixon hostage near the end – actually summarizes the episode and the thrust of most of Season 7 of the show. And after that long extension of the cliffhanger that marked this episode, the audience as well.

The reveal of just who died finally came 20 minutes in, and it was brutal. First Abraham fell victim to Negan’s bat Lucille. Then it was Glenn who was killed as an example to the others after Daryl attempted to attack Negan for killing Abe. It was a brutal blow to the core cast at the hands of the Morgan-portrayed sadistic villain’s barbed-wire baseball bat, especially since audiences had to wait so long for it.

Having already died in the Robert Kirkman comics on which the series is based, the battering death of the Michael Cudlitz-played ex-Army sergeant on TV tonight was but one of many twists and tortures in the 1-hour and 6-minute long opener. Even though there had been some indications that more than one character might be killed in the Season 7 premiere, the additional death tonight of Steven Yeun’s Glenn Rhee character shocked many who were watching the episode at a special event at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles amid some very drizzly weather.

Even though the Glenn character was Negan’s actual victim in the comics, many believed that he would make it through the first part of Season 7 after surviving the multi-episode arc last Season in which it was unknown if his character had died from a Walker attack or not. Looks like they, and us in our TWD S7 preview, were wrong on that one.

walking-dead-s7-opener-andrew-lincoln

Still, coming directly off the “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” cliffhanger of the April 3 Season 6 finale where the Saviors and their leader captured Rick, Daryl and more of the core survivors, to call tonight’s bloody opener to highly anticipated and very heavily marketed by AMC would be an understatement. While who would actually die on the death deep TWD was kept under narrative lock and key, AMC was in full PR mode for months. Among other media events, the show and its principals teased out what to expect throughout the summer with appearances and trailers at Comic-Cons on both coasts. The SDCC tease also revealed that the series would be incorporating the Kingdom group from the comics and their leader Kzekiel, to be played by Khary Payton.

While it seemed pretty clear from the NYCC teaser dropped earlier this month in the Big Apple that Lincoln’s Grimes wouldn’t be on the chopping block in the season premiere, the guessing game has reached new heights in recent weeks. Adopting a practice that HBO and Game of Thrones have employed for the past few years and that TWD itself has used for past season finales, AMC did not make any advance screeners of tonight’s premiere available for review or anything else.

NBC Sunday Night Football - Season 2015

Add to that hype machine the fact that TWD is facing a low scoring and long Seattle Seahawks vs. the Arizona Cardinals match-up on Sunday Night Football tonight. During tonight’s east coast airing of TWD over 80% of TV-related activity on Twitter was related to the season premiere. All of which means that the Season 7 debut could very likely see TWD return to the top of both the broadcast and cable mountain with tonight’s Scott M. Gimple penned and Greg Nicotero directed episode. As a bit of side trivia – Sunday’s show is the fourth consecutive TWD opener that has been written and helmed by the EPs. Nicotero and showrunner Gimple also ran point on the Season 6 ‘Last Day On Earth’ finale, with Matthew Negrete co-writing.

Following tonight’s airing of the Season 7 opener, cast members Cudlitz, Yeun, Lincoln, Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Sonequa Martin-Green, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Ross Marquand, and Morgan AKA Negan will be on aftershow Talking Dead live from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery to talk about the episode, who died and why and the fallout. The actors will be joined by EPs Gimple and Kirkman on the Chris Hardwick hosted show.

Already renewed for an eighth season by AMC, the first part of the seventh season of TWD runs until December 11 with the second 8-episode part expected back in February 2017

http://deadline.com/2016/10/the-walking-dead-spoilers-season-7-premiere-negan-victim-andrew-lincoln-norman-reedus-amc-1201841335/

[Every Picture Tells a Story]

Robert Kirkman says 'Walking Dead' season 7 is 'insane'


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Source: CNNMoney

Robert Kirkman says 'Walking Dead' season 7 is 'insane' 01:18







Story highlights
'The Walking Dead' Season 7 premiere revealed who villain Negan killed with his barbed wire-covered bat
The cast members who played the deceased characters spoke out on AMC's 'The Talking Dead'




Los Angeles (CNN) — Warning: This story contains spoilers about "The Walking Dead" Season 7 premiere.

Death comes to "The Walking Dead" probably more often than the rain comes to Los Angeles. But on Sunday night, as Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) swung his bat upon his first victim in the show's Season 7 premiere, the heavens opened up over Hollywood Forever Cemetery.



After a screening of the Season 7 premiere, "Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick joked, "the heavens are crying."

The cast was, too, at times. Almost all the major players gathered at the screening for a live, 90-minute episode of "The Walking Dead" after show to say goodbye to two cast members -- Steven Yeun, who played gold-hearted Glenn, and Michael Cudlitz, who played master of the one-liner Abraham.

Related: 'The Walking Dead' delivers blow to fans in bloody premiere







"I think Glenn died in a very Glenn way ... still not thinking about himself," Yeun told the "Talking Dead" crowd.

Glenn was the second of Negan's on-screen victims.

The villain, who debuted on the show late last season, first took his beloved barbed-wire covered bat -- nicknamed 'Lucille' -- to Abraham's head. The graphic scene drew screams from the crowd.

Afterward, Daryl (Norman Reedus) attacked Negan, who took Glenn as his second victim.

Glenn's final words were to his wife, Maggie (Lauren Cohan): "I will find you."

Reedus, who affectionately wrapped an arm around his former costar Yeun during the character's "Talking Dead" memorial package, said Daryl will feel tremendous guilt over his part in Glenn's death going forward.

"He feels really responsible," he said.

The scene in the premiere played out somewhat similarly to how it did in the comic book version of the storyline -- at least when it comes to Glenn. The comic character famously met his end in issue No. 100 at the hands of Negan.

Yeun, who has been on the show since the start, remembered reading that and thinking it was "iconic."

"I think I even said [to Kirkman], 'Don't give that to anyone else,'" he said.

The show has been known to play with key moments from the comic books and play them out in different and surprising ways.

In this case, however, Kirkman said the plan for these deaths had been in place for about 2 years. They "set the stage" for a lot to come and he saw them as a sign that the show is not slowing down any time soon.

After the deaths, there is a lot that "has to be resolved," he said.

Cohan said the departure of characters who were "pillars" has "changed the dynamic on the show."

"It was a whole new frontier for us," she said of filming without Yeun and Cudlitz.

Cudlitz, who has been on the show since Season 4, said he felt like his character had been living on "borrowed time." But he was ultimately happy with Abraham's larger-than-life send off and final line ("Suck my n--s.").

"I thought it was awesome," Cudlitz said. "I think it's very, very appropriate for him to go out that way."

"The Walking Dead" airs Sundays on AMC.


http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/24/entertainment/negan-walking-dead-victims-talking-dead/index.html