1. Season 7 Picks Off in the Immediate Aftermath
The Walking Dead might be making you wait until it returns with Season 7 to find out who Negan killed, but it won't make you wait much longer than that.
"That's the impression I have. We will pick up directly from what we saw last night," Morgan said in the group interview. "Season 6 ended on that note, and Season 7's going to pick up right where we left off. We're going to see who's on the other end of that bat and go from there."
Gimple elaborated, "In many ways, what we saw last night was the end of the story of episode 16, where Rick winds up is completely different from where he started in [episode 1] and in 9. I've known for a while what is in 701, and presenting what occurs, to show what happened in full force, is the beginning of the next story. To the showing, it's an incredible work of gore by Charlie Adlard in the book. How we show that on TV, I'm certain that we will be pushing some boundaries with it."
2. We'll See the World Through Negan's Eyes
Negan is a very important figure in the world of The Walking Dead, and marks a big turning point in the story. Expect Season 7 to deal with the exploration into his character and a greater understanding of what he is about.
"We will see stories from his perspective, but I do think that the guy you see is the guy he is," Gimple said. "There won't be this sort of reveal behind the mask, which I think is actually super challenging from a writing perspective for this kind of villain."
"I talked to Robert Kirkman last night ... and he is kind of doing the backstory of Negan now. Whether or not or when we see that -- and I hope we do -- I don't know," Morgan said. "It's going to kick off directly from where we left it last night. Hopefully we'll find out more about Negan as we go."
3. How They're Keeping Who Died a Secret
The biggest issue The Walking Dead is going to face going forward is how to keep who died a secret as Season 7 starts filming and people get new jobs. After joking "How weird would it be if the reveal is that it's Jon Snow?" in regards to comparisons to this situation and the one Game of Thrones faced between Seasons 5 and 6, Gimple said they're going to try to keep things as tight as possible.
"It goes back to that meta stuff, it goes back to that awareness of all that stuff around the show that we are trying to tend to," he said. "We are going to try to protect the secret of this to protect the audience experience. I sure hope it doesn't leak in any way."
Gimple has known for a while who he wanted to die at the end of this episode, but he wouldn't get more specific than that. He did say that every death this scene and moving forward is part of a bigger plan. "It's about those deaths meaning something to the story, to the other characters. I know that what's coming up is going to change everything with the story, whether it's fairly new or a fairly OG character. There is a long-running plan to this show," he said. "Characters will meet their end, but also some characters will not meet their end -- at least, for a while. There are no immortal characters, I don't mean to say that."
Morgan admitted he didn't realize that there would be a cliffhanger at the end of the episode until he watched the show. "That's just how it was done in my world. I don't know if any of the cast knew how it was going to end," he said. "I think that their expectation of that was the end of the story for that season, and Rick had lost control, and there's Negan, and Negan has all the control. That's where they wanted to end the story. It's not about that person, and then the death of the person is going to kick off Season 7, and Season 7 is going to be a big part of who's on the receiving end of Lucille."
4. What It Was
"'Agitated' is a good word," Morgan said to describe what it was like filming the end of the episode. "It was a very emotional two nights. I think you can see it on the people's faces."
He added, "I was just trying to find that groove of Negan. I only had two days to do it, and that's a hell of an introduction for someone to just come in and do. ... A couple of them didn't make eye contact with me until the second night."
Gimple also called the shoot "unbelievably emotional," especially since everyone knew a character was going to die.
"Obviously, they know that. Everything is incredibly loaded, and then Jeffrey came out and, pun intended, he killed it," Gimple said, adding that this scene was the first time the cast saw Morgan as Negan. "Everything seemed to get more and more real with the performances, with the situation, with just how hard everything was because it was freezing. It wasn't that the performances diminished for as hard as things got. The performances got better and better and better, and they started really good. It was an amazing night."
5. Why Negan Is So Interesting
Morgan said he's been approached by fans of The Walking Dead comics ever since Issue 100 was released with the suggestion from them that he should be the person to play Negan. "I was very aware of the character," he said. "I think what was important is this character is charismatic. ... I never looked at him like [psychotic]. I think there's a lot of similarities between him and Rick. If we were following Negan's story since Season 1 on The Walking Dead, the audience would be rooting for him."
"He is not a bad guy to me," Morgan added. "I never approach it like he's a bad guy."
Gimple described Negan as "very honest," whereas a character like the Governor was "putting on an act. "With Negan, what you see is what you get. He's not putting on any airs. He's not hiding parts of himself," said Gimple. "He doesn't really have these dark motivations behind his actions. I think with Negan it's about positive reinforcement. He has approached the world in a certain way, and the world has rewarded him for that."
6. Rick and Negan Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
There are striking similarities between Negan and Rick's stories, with Gimple admitting that "I actually think if we followed Negan we might actually be in the same place where we are with Rick."
"What you're doing there, that seems like that's the behavior of a bad person. What's interesting is, for Rick's experience, he's justified in what he's been doing. The world has formed him this way," Gimple continued. "What he's done has generally been in a reaction to being threatened and trying to make sure that his people live. Things are getting grayer and grayer and grayer. I think that the things have Rick has done you can hold up against the things that Negan has done. It's not a vast gulf between those two. The way they operate is very different and their philosophies are very different. I think that's maybe where we see one person being the hero and one person being the villain."
7. Responding to Fan Backlash
There was a good amount of backlash to the season finale's ending, and Gimple defended the decision during the conversation.
"If you approach it from a place of skepticism or with the idea that there's some sort of negative motivation behind it or cynical motivation behind it, if you come at it that way it's difficult to convince you otherwise. I do think we've done enough on the show and we deliver a story that people have enjoyed, I guess to ask people to give us the benefit of the doubt that it's all part of a plan," he said. "I truly hope that people see 701 and they feel it justifies how we've decided to tell the story."
Gimple did understand criticisms of some other decisions made this season, like taking Steven Yeun's name out of the credits to make it seem like Glenn had died. "I wanted the audience to go through an emotional experience and I didn't want things like the credits to get in the way of that. I can see if it's looked upon cynically that I'm doing something specifically to not protect the audience but to play with them, but I think it's an incredibly smart and plugged in audience and every cue is looked at I thought it would be safer for their experience to take name out than to leave it in and shrug my shoulders," he said.
"There is a vast audience and people in some ways feel almost that it's their duty to let their opinions be known," Gimple said. "I know the greater story that we're telling and I know why this fits in where this fits in. The hard thing about it is you can't say exactly why you do some of the turns you take because you'll wind up telling details of the story. It's a very weird position to be in. I do know and the writers know and the producers know and the cast and crew knows, we do know why we do what we do, and we know our intentions are good. ... I'd love a little more trust, but I guess it's a good thing for society that people aren't just trusting the things that are coming across the television set."
8. The World Will Open Up in Season 7
"In the next half season, the world is going to open up even more," Gimple said of what's ahead. "We are going to have a wide variety of locals and a wide variety of tone, of character. I'm very excited for all the different stories that are going to be told, and there will be a lot of different stories told. There's going to be probably the biggest variety in stories we've done yet. I can say without spoiling anything that things are going to start off very, very, very dark, because everybody knows where we're starting, but that won't be the whole season. It's not going to be darkness upon darkness upon darkness. I'm very excited for all the individual characters' journeys -- except for the way we start, which will be awful."
Did we already get a first taste of the Kingdom in the armored people who saved Carol and Morgan? "Those guys may or may not have been from the Kingdom, and we may or may not see Ezekiel, but if we do see the Kingdom, it will be a big reveal and it will be another new world to inhabit and explore," Gimple answered coyly.
And what about hopes for Shiva arriving with Ezekiel next season? "I would say in a really cheeky way that we can have a lot of things. People are going to have to wait and see. If I were just watching the show, I'd want to see that tiger," said Gimple.
The show will return to the Hilltop in Season 7 -- and that's good news for Alexandria, because Gimple acknowledged that Rick's community is sorely outnumbered. "The numbers are vast, and really just talking man and woman power, Alexandria's in a good bit of trouble." he said. "There just are many, many, many more Saviors."
9. Where Carol and Morgan Grow in Season 7
Carol and Morgan's respective evolutions, both separate and influencing each other, have been huge talking points of Season 7. When asked to talk about where Carol currently stands, Gimple said, "She killed a lot of people in episode 2. At the end of that episode, she sat on a stoop and cried. That actually was the start of this weight that she was feeling. ... She had reached a point where she was actually comfortable with dying. She has a road to go down and she wants to be alone. That's what that character wants, that's what that character's going after. It will be interesting to see if she gets what she wants, and if she can live with that."
As for Morgan, Gimple said, "I don't think that Morgan has necessarily settled things. He was conflicted starting episode 7. ... Neither one of them wants to kill because they feel the weight of it. They recognize they have to."
10. You Can't Puzzle Out Who Died
Fans have already tried to figure out who died at the end by playing and replaying the final scene, but are there actually enough clues to figure it out? "I believe there is no way," said Gimple. There are a couple things in there that might help people possibly limit the amount of people who are vulnerable, but I will recommend people not to go down that route, because I truly don't think there is a way to puzzle it all out definitively."
That said, he thinks it's inevitable that someone will figure out who died. "These are incredibly smart fans to start with. Then you put it to this incredible crowd-sourcing, and they will get it. People will figure out exactly what happens in episode 1, even know there aren't clues to determine it. And I'm not talking spoilers. I'm saying people will figure it out things in 1 that there's no way there are able to. I've just seen it again and again," Gimple said. "At this point, it's amazing. People figure things out. Granted it might be one comment among a thousand comments, but there is absolutely no doubt someone will figure it out. ... I hope it doesn't become the dominant one."
11. We Will See Heath Again
Even though Corey Hawkins will be starring as the lead in the upcoming 24: Legacy, he will be back again on The Walking Dead. "At this point, we've had to choose your own adventure it a little bit. We're hoping to have him in a certain episode for a certain thing that would lead to another thing. We have a lot of contingency plans," Gimple said. "Luckily I had been thinking about this possibility for a while, and really just tried to find several different ways to get what we wanted to get with the character if we don't get to do it on the exact schedule that we hoped to."
12. The Theme of Season 7
The Walking Dead finds a way to reinvent itself every half season, and Season 7a will similarly have a different theme from what came before. When asked to explain the theme for the first half of the new season, Gimple said it's "How do you begin again? The world is not what they thought it was, so how do you basically start over in this new world, in this place that you had no idea it was what it is. How do you begin again with that?"
"All of these characters, even characters that weren't in that lineup, are in a position where they will learn the world isn't what they thought it was," he continued. "For some of these characters, that won't be wholly negative, but it will challenge them in terms of how they want to move forward and who they want to be."
13. Maggie's Illness Will Be Dealt With
Maggie's illness played a big role in the season finale of The Walking Dead, but it's unclear what exactly she is suffering from, whether it's a miscarriage or otherwise. When asked to clarify, Gimple said, "I don't want to say exactly what it is, but the exact diagnosis will be shared, one way or another. We'll find out one way or another what happened."
14. Carl and Negan Will Have Their Moment... In a Way
When asked if Carl and Negan's relationship will play out in the same way it did in the comics, Gimple quickly responded, "Oh yes, a thousand times yes, but in a very weird [way]. It may be very, very brief, but we will absolutely see them have a pretty intense moment."
He clarified, "There's going to be a bit of remixing. There might be another character involved that takes some of it. That relationship will be absolutely shown. Whether it's with Carl or not, I cannot say. I absolutely want to explore Negan having that strange respect for someone, which I think was the hallmark of that relationship, and tell versions of that story."
