Walking Dead's season 6 finale stunned and shocked a lot of fans — especially the cliffhanger ending with Negan appearing to be killing an as-yet-to-be revealed cast member — but director Greg Nicotero says it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better for Rick Grimes and the rest of the Walking Dead crew.
Nicotero offered a few hints about what fans can expect in the forthcoming season in an interview with Deadline, sharing that Negan will have a huge impact on the show going forward.
"If you really think about his journey in the comic books," Nicotero explains, "[Rick] shares the spotlight with Negan in the comic book. Negan now has some ownership over what the show is about."
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We also learned a little bit about where the group would be traveling this season. Speaking on the cliffhanger with Negan, Nicotero added, "It’s the anticipation and the excitement of new worlds that we’re going to, like the Hilltop, like the Kingdom, like the Sanctuary where Negan lives."
On the cliffhanger and fans being upset about waiting for the new season, Nicotero explains, "I still believe that the story that we’re telling warranted that cliffhanger, and I think if we would have showed who Negan killed in the end of that episode, it wouldn’t have had the same impact, because people were expecting it. Everybody knew that Negan was going to kill someone."
Nicotero also added that he was proud of how disturbing the episode was. "Rick has never felt fear," he said. "And you never see him scared in the entire series until that episode."
Cue us humming the opening theme for the rest of the week, because season 7 can't get here soon enough.