The Walking Dead panel at New York Comic Con had lots of laughs, a few tears, flying bobby pins and fans trying to get Norman Reedus to take his clothes off. And while fans did not learn which beloved character died in the cliffhanger finale of season six, they were given a hint at what to expect.
Season six ended with Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the recently introduced leader of the Saviors, threatening Rick Grimes and his group of survivors with Lucille: his beloved, barbed-wire-covered baseball bat.
A short clip was shown of the first episode of season seven, which premieres on 23 October. In it, we saw the blood-covered bat and Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, threatening to kill Negan. “Not today, not tomorrow, but I’m going to kill you,” Grimes says. Negan seems to ponder this, then takes Grimes’s axe, sticks it in his belt and drags Rick into a camper.
“We’ll be right back,” Negan says. “Maybe Rick will be with me. And if not, maybe we can turn these people inside out, won’t we? I mean the ones that are left.”
As the camper door shuts, the camera pans down to a bloody mass on the ground.
From the clip, we know one person who wasn’t the target of Negan’s bat, but the panellists kept mum about who was actually killed. When a fan asked how hard it was to keep that a secret, Robert Kirkman, creator of the original comic and executive producer, said he liked to tease fans by saying a different, inaccurate name every time.
Showrunner Scott M Gimple promised that fans would know within the first episode. “I will sign whatever document you need me to sign,” he joked.
Thoughts on Negan’s role in season seven dominated the discussion, with executive producer David Alpert saying Negan’s power was “perfectly suited for the apocalypse”. Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne, was asked to compare him to the Governor, a past villain. “The Governor was small potatoes compared to this guy,” Gurira said. “He doesn’t have one town, Woodbury. He has outposts in various places we don’t even know about yet. We know it’s more than one at this point.”
While Negan seems quite the villain, moderator Chris Hardwick made the argument that from Negan’s point of view, the other characters are the bad guys. Gimple at one point joked that Hardwick was a “Negan apologist”.
Morgan said his character was doing “essentially the same thing these guys have been doing for the last seven years … He just happens to carry a baseball bat that he loves dearly.”
The crowd cheered.
“I think Negan coming in and flexing his Barnum-and-Bailey-style justice on these people is kind of his way of letting them know that they were wrong and need to go down a notch or 10,” Morgan said, adding that Negan’s charisma and ability to protect others was what gave him so many followers.
Gimple said fans should be excited about the “amazing performances” from the actors and “some really unbelievably, creepy, strange, weird walkers” – plus the tiger and a new character, Ezekiel, played by Khary Payton. Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd was excited about the larger world of season seven.
While Lincoln’s character featured in the preview, he wasn’t there for the panel. His humorous antics with Reedus lived on. At San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, Reedus doused his cast-mate in glitter. Reedus said Lincoln’s latest prank had been to put Reedus’s motorcycle on a boat in the middle of lake, a sex doll on top of it.
On Friday, Lincoln had Reedus read a message in which he apologised for his absence and made “Norm-ski” promise that if a fan answered a trivia question correctly, he would take off an article of clothing. Fans in the room were shouting, “Take your shirt off,” but he ended up tossing his hat to the crowd. “I really liked that hat, too,” he said, regretfully.
Character relationships were another dominant discussion, bringing the conversation to Glenn and Maggie’s romance. Michael Cudlitz, who plays Abraham, accidentally knocked a bobby pin out of Sonequa Martin-Green’s up-do. Austin Nichols made the mistake of using the word “penetrate” when describing his character Spencer’s relationship with Rosita.
When the actor Lauren Cohan spoke, she was tearful over how far the show had come and its community of fans. The premiere of season seven will be the show’s 100th episode.
“Thank you for caring about our show and for being mad when you don’t know things,” the actor said. Fans shouted back that they loved her.
Hardwick said: “No matter who it is [that dies], I’m sure you understand you’re part of the family forever.” The audience cheered in agreement.
