NOTE: The Walking Dead S7E1 spoilers
The Walking Dead actor Michael Cudlitz may no longer be with the show following a dramatic and controversial season 7 opening episode, but he has continued to defend the series and the violence depicted in the very same episode.
Michael Cudlitz as Abraham / Credit: AMC
Playing Abraham on the series, Cudlitz's character was the first victim of new villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his barbed wire baseball bat Lucille, and viewers were in for a shock when they saw almost every shot of the bat raining down on Abraham's skull.
Following the episode, conservative American group Parents Television Council complained about the violence shown, but Cudlitz has a response for them.
Speaking to Digital Spy, he explained: "We knew that was going to happen. We always knew that we were in a dangerous world, as far as the Walkers and the uncertainty of what was going on. But I think that the uncertainty now has been raised even higher."
Cudlitz said the violence was part of a "reset" for the series, adding: "You literally have someone who will kill you for looking at them the wrong way. That's literally driven home, and everybody had to be beaten down, because we had gotten cocky in some ways because we had never lost."
The Walking Dead continues Sundays on AMC in the US and Mondays on FOX in the UK.
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