AMC's The Walking Dead has become an insanely polarizing series in recent months. Its highly anticipated seventh season wasn't received quite as well as prior seasons, and many fans have started to complain that the series appears to be just spinning its wheels. However, Andrew Lincoln recently addressed the fan concerns about the show and explained that Season 7 makes sense once you have watched it to its conclusion. Rick Grimes' real life counterpart explained:
I think sometimes having to wait is a good thing because you get to recap on other things and view it in a different way. Although I would say that this season made a lot more sense once we got the last role of film in the can for episode 716. The brilliant writers that we have take some risks, and I admire them for it. I admire anybody taking risks.
If you're one of the many people who felt that the first half of The Walking Dead's seventh season didn't go anywhere, then Andrew Lincoln's comments to EW should put you at ease. Although the first half of the season didn't feature much forward momentum, it did quite a bit of table setting for the last set of episodes. The Walking Dead is playing a long game, and it very much wants to make sure that all of its game pieces are correctly placed before sending Rick, Daryl, and the rest of the survivors after Negan and The Saviors.
Andrew Lincoln also took the time to address the incredibly violent Season 7 premiere, which garnered a ton of controversy on the Internet for the sheer brutality depicted in the deaths of Glenn and Abraham. Although the two deaths were especially violent, that was completely by design. Scott Gimple wanted to make audiences feel the demises of these two fan-favorites, and make them clamor for a sense of "justice" when Rick finally decides to fight back. The actor explained:
[Showrunner Scott M. Gimple] explained it to me in one way, which I found very helpful, which was that rather than just have a very cool exciting buildup to war between between Negan and Rick, he wanted people to want more than that --- to really feel that they wanted justice, and then to also acknowledge the cost of what had happened and why they were willing to risk it all again while realizing that they were putting many, many, many lives back in the firing line.
I have to say that I agree. The deaths of Glenn and Abraham were pretty damn brutal, but they also made me want to see Negan brought down in grand fashion. That's high-stakes storytelling at its finest.
CinemaBlend will bring you more information related to the second half of The Walking Dead's seventh season as more updates become available. The zombie series will return on Sunday, February 12 at 9 p.m. EST on AMC. Check out our midseason premiere guide for more information related to all of the other highly anticipated spring television debuts!
