California – The first trailer for the seventh season of The Walking Dead was unveiled Friday at Comic-Con International. AMC also announced that the new season would premiere Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m.
The trailer debuted at Comic-Con during a panel moderated by Chris Hardwick, who is also the host of the talk show “The Talking Dead”, which focus on discussing the series episodes with fans and cast members. The panel featured cast and crew members, such as actors Andrew Lincoln, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, showrunner Scott Gimple, executive producers Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, and more.
With a nerve-racking season-six finale that shows one of the main characters of the series being beaten to death with a baseball bat by Negan – Morgan’s character -, the trailer does not reveal who his victim was, but Lincoln said that it would be revealed in the season premiere in October.
“It’s definitely worth the wait,” Kirkman said, according to Variety.
Another topic addressed during the panel was the unexpected hype around the relationship between Rick and Michonne, portrayed by Lincoln and Gurira respectively. Apparently, as an interracial couple, it had a significant impact on the series’ followers.
“I hope and believe that it will help break that barrier and allow more of those portrayals to be expressed,” Gurira expressed, as quoted by Variety.
The trailer introduces King Ezekiel’s character
King Ezekiel is one of the new characters the series will enter next season, played by actor Khary Payton. Ezekiel is one of the favorite characters for fans of the comic books on which the series is based. The three-minute trailer gives an overall view of The Kingdom and Ezekiel’s tiger pet Shiva, all introduced in Issue 108 of the comic.
Season 7 of The Walking Dead will feature 16 episodes, and just as previous seasons. It will be split in two. The first half will be aired beginning in October, while the second half is set to run in February, although there has not been shared a specific date for this.
AMC will air a behind-the-scenes special of Season 7 on August 14 at ten p.m., hosted by Hardwick. Also, the network will broadcast a two-hour recap special of the series on October 16. Season 7 debut will be followed by the premiere of a new season of “The Talking Dead.”
Season 6 finale was extremely polemic and commented
Last season finale generated conflict among fans because of it’s almost painful cliffhanger. The character of Negan was introduced as the new antagonist of the series and a dead-threatening new cast member in the “Last Day On Earth” episode.
The leader of the Saviors sent his people to capture Rick’s group while they were driving to the Hilltop. After ambushing them in the woods, they were taken to the Saviors’ location. The high-ranking member of the Saviors Dwight also brought previously captured Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, and Rosita, and made them all get on their knees.
Then, Negan made his expected appearance to tell Rick’s group that he was now their owner. The controversy came after Negan claimed revenge for all the Saviors Rick’s group had killed, saying that the group must be punished. With a baseball bat covered in barbed wire called Lucille in his hand, he decided to choose his victim playing the game of “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.” Pointing Lucille at each member of the group, he finally chose his victim, proceeding to beat the person to death.
What made fans annoyed with the imprecise finale was the fact that cameras never showed who the victim was, leaving audiences in uncertainty since April 3. The mystery will be finally be solved in the highly-anticipated Season 7 debut.
Source: Variety