Last night Chris Hardwick hosted a special episode of ‘Talking Dead’, ‘The Walking Dead’ season 7 preview. Hardwick’s guests included Yvette Nicole Brown, a regular guest and Walking Dead expert, and Austin Amelio, who plays “Dwight” on the Walking Dead. Other cast members appeared on video clips with comments on season 6 and 7, including Norman Reedus, Lennie James, Melissa McBride, Tom Payne, and Chandler Riggs.
Hardwick discussed the emotional moments of the past season and the heartbreak that is to come. Of course, he spent much of the preview cracking jokes.
The first cast clip was from Jeffrey Dean Morgan who plays Negan. He said that after only being on the series for “a total of 12 minutes”, he is surprised how it has already changed his life and compared it to being a member of The Beatles.
Brown posed an interesting question in the next part of the conversation. “Is our group really the good guys?” She continued. “They did walk into a building and just started killing people.” She makes a good point. Hardwick agreed and made a comment that if Rick and the group were someone else we would be rooting for Negan to kill them. The group went from trying to do the right thing and following a code of ethics to doing whats right for them.
Hardwick asked Amelio about “Dwight” and Amelio replied “He’s Negan’s left hand man.” Then he was asked about what it is like to work Morgan. He spoke highly of Morgan and described Negan as the “Willie Wonka of Murder”.
Speaking of Morgan, Hardwick shared a question for Brown from Facebook. A fan asked if she was Negan, “Who would you kill?” Her choices were Michonne and Carl. Her reasoning, if Negan wanted to get to Rick, killing one of them would be the best way. She continued on to bring up how Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) rose when Negan pointed the bat at him and that it was a boss move. She also emphasized that she has no idea who the victim actually is and has gone out of her way not to find out. She did said that she doubts that is Daryl because “Negan only kills to make a point. Daryl is useful and Negan knows that. He wants Rick and the group to bring him money and stuff. Well, not money, but stuff.”
The next cast clips were from Lennie James (Morgan) and Melissa McBride (Carol). Morgan said he’s interested in “how he will cope as part of the new group without Rick as an anchor. He also commented on how much he likes working with Carol. If fact the two spoke so highly of each other, it almost makes me wonder if Carol and Morgan might get together. McBride described James as being like “a Popsicle on a hot day.”. Interesting.
After a few quick witted comments from Hardwick, Amelio and Brown, they moved on to the next topic, the crotch biting scene between Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Dwight or as Hardwick put it, “a big ole dick biting party.” Amelio explained that it happened pretty quickly. He also asked if Dwight feels guilty about killing Denise. Amelio said in Dwight’s eye’s it was “all business”. A poll was conducted and fans actually think that Dwight might be salvageable as a decent person.
Brown, McBride and Hardwick also mentioned the new characters of Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Shiva (a tiger). Brown spoke of how talented she thinks Payton is and how she warned him of what he’s getting into. The three talked about just how awesome Ezekiel and Shiva looked in this season’s trailer. Let me fresh your memory.
As for what we can expect in the season 7 premiere, McBride said “You think you are prepared, but you’re not.” In other words it’s going to be bad. There are a ton of theories about who Negan killed in the finale, but the truth is, even if we knew seeing it is going to be really hard. We’ve followed this group of characters for so long. We are invested in them. And on October 23rd we will saying good-bye one of them. In a letter read aloud by Hardwick Scott M. Gimple said that the events in the premiere, the death, will change the course of the group forever.
Norman Reedus told fans (via video) to prepare themselves for episode one, “Get somebody you care about. Hold their hand. You’ll probably cry, you’ll probably smash your television set. So surround your room with a lot of happy things, I guess.”
The season 7 preview clip aired during the special featuring Austin Amelio. It is not long and does not reveal very much, but at least we got to see something from season 7. Check it out.
