The Walking Dead finally returned for its seventh season, after a controversial cliffhanger ending to season 6 which left the majority of diehard fans disappointed in the choices the people behind the series had made.
Credit: AMC
Chatting about those very decisions, and the ones which were ultimately made for the new episode, creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman and showrunner Scott Gimple explained on companion show Talking Dead: "I think the hardest thing about it was thinking while starting the script, 'Well, what would break Rick?' It was all in the book, in issue 100. But looking for a way to break the audience too. Not in a way that is in any way to hurt them, but for them to believe that Rick Grimes would be under the thumb of Negan. That he would go through an experience that would do that to him. That the audience would go through the experience too, so that they would believe that Rick could do what this guy says."
Kirkman and Gimple also revealed that they had had the idea to knock out two of the fan favourite characters with just minutes in-between each other for around two years now.
They also moved away from the comic books with the torture Rick endured at the hands of Negan, in which the new Big Bad played some mega mind games with Grimes.
Telling Rick that more of his group would fall if he didn't follow his orders, he almost gave the command for Rick to chop off his son Carl's arm. Once Rick had agreed to do it however, Negan stopped the act from taking place, proving he had Grimes right where he wanted him.
The Walking Dead season 7 continues next Sunday on AMC in the US and continues Mondays on FOX in the UK.
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