The Walking Dead's harrowing Season 7 premiere was a dark start to the new year, finally revealing Negan's victim and putting Rick in a situation where he knows the leader of the Saviors isn't a person he can defeat easily.
It's an episode that was divisive among fans and critics, but now that the band-aid has been ripped off, it's time to look forward at what comes after Negan's big kill. Fortunately, the future is a lot brighter for the show in many ways.
As executive producer Greg Nicotero explained during a recent conference call with reporters, opening the season with Negan was how The Walking Dead would launch its characters into realizing there's a much bigger world out there. "We thought that it was important to launch us into this season by showing the extent of what Negan is capable is doing, because that drives so much of where the series is going from here on in, with the opportunity to start introducing new worlds and new characters and intertwining all that," he said.
With that in mind, here's a breakdown of six positive things coming up on The Walking Dead.
Season 7 features two very significant non-human characters characters: a barbed wire-covered bat named Lucille, and a tiger named Shiva. Shiva resides at a new location called the Kingdom, which will play a big factor in the upcoming second episode of the season.
Shiva on The Walking Dead
It's in episode 2 that it will be revealed why it makes sense for a tiger to exist in the world of The Walking Dead (and it does, promise). But for now, just get excited that this larger than life season adds a ferocious feline to the mix.
Ezekiel -- or King Ezekiel, as he likes to be known -- is unlike any character previously introduced on The Walking Dead. He's the leader of Kingdom, another community out there like Alexandria and Hilltop that will play a key role in Season 7's fight against Negan and the Saviors.
Khary Payton as King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead
Ezekiel is a character fans have been waiting to debut for years, partly because he keeps a tiger in tow but also because his strength adds an interesting new dynamic to the series. He's a leader far different than Rick or Negan, and his positivity makes a marked contrast to the darkness seen in the Season 7 premiere. From episode 2 and on, expect him to make a notable impact on the tone of the show.
At the end of Season 6, viewers saw Morgan and Carol meet up with some warriors from the Kingdom, so it's a good bet that it's through their eyes we'll be introduced to Ezekiel and Shiva. But they also will offer an interesting contrast to the rest of the Alexandrians, as they're two of the core group who didn't witness Negan killing two of their own.
Lennie James as Morgan on The Walking Dead
Carol is still grappling with wanting to be out on her own and Morgan is still trying to determine the path he wants to walk, but these are two notable characters to not be a part of the group trauma Negan inflicted and to want to fight back against him and the Saviors. How they fit into the larger story -- and why it was important they be absent from that face off -- will be interesting to watch play out throughout the season.
With now four key societies in The Walking Dead (and maybe more), the show is intentionally letting viewers know that the post-apocalypse is bigger than just Rick and his group. While previous seasons have played with the idea of Rick's group being alone in the world, here we see how other humans have banded together and come out of the zombie outbreak -- some in good ways, some in bad. That also means there's a chance for alliances and key group members shifting allegiances, which could prove interesting throughout Season 7.
As Nicotero said, "We're about to be introduced to some new communities and that's really the crux of the season: meeting these new groups and these new people and seeing how the balance of power plays out."
With that news, it should be no surprise that The Walking Dead will return to the Hilltop, as well as one of Season 6's more standout new characters: Tom Payne's Jesus.
Tom Payne as Paul "Jesus" Rovia on The Walking Dead
Considering the Alexandrians' conflict with Hilltop's leader Gregory and their partnership with Jesus, Rick & co's new subservience to Negan should add an interesting wrinkle to these relations. Whereas the Alexandrians had previously claimed they could get Hilltop out from under the Saviors' control, now they find themselves under it as well. Jesus almost certainly will be more understanding than Gregory will be when they find out.
This one's a given, right? It's not going to happen in the next episode, or the next one, or probably even before the midseason finale, but some things are certain about The Walking Dead: there will be zombies, and Rick will fight the bad guy.
With that positive note out of the way (Negan, Lucille and the Saviors really need to be stopped), what will be interesting about this season is the journey Rick goes on to be ready for that second showdown. He was caught woefully unprepared during his first face-off with Negan, and paid a pretty terrible price for it. Now he's broken, seemingly Negan's man through-and-through, so what will he need to overcome -- and who will he need to work with -- to take the Big Bad down for good... if that's even possible? That's a storyline definitely worth looking forward to.
What are you most excited about that's coming up on The Walking Dead? Let us know in the comments below!
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire