‘Walking Dead’ Exclusive Outtakes And Bloopers Of Season 6 Premiere

The season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead was off the board one of the most exhilarating and gruesome premieres in the history of TV, and the whole The Walking Dead cast was in the zone during the taping of the season premiere. But of course, all masterpieces aren’t complete without a little tweaking here and there, and The Walking Dead director Greg Nicotero shared with Entertainment Weekly some of the behind-the-scenes bloopers and outtakes that didn’t make it to The Walking Dead season 6 premiere.

Spoilers of The Walking Dead season 6 premiere ahead. If you haven’t watch the first episode yet, go back here when you’ve done so.

One of the moments that will strike you in the season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead is that scene where Rick Grimes (played by actor Andy Lincoln) pulls up a gun and says the line, straight from the comic book, “I have these fighters and these survivors with me and there’s no way you’re going to be able to remove us from here, because we’re stronger than you are.” This scene was a golden moment for the Walking Dead director as he shared a blooper they got as Andy warmed up for his gun-wielding scene.

Wait, there’s a great blooper I have to tell you about. When we shot the scene with Rick and Ethan, Andy was getting into character and he punched the wall, just sort of getting his blood up before he pulls a gun. And he put his hand through the wall. And the blooper is so funny, because you can hear me in the background. He goes from being Rick Grimes to being Andy Lincoln for a split second and goes, “Uh-oh. Is that in the shot?” And you can hear me in the background going, “Yes, the hole in the wall is clearly in the shot.” It was right next to his head. But it’s funny in those last 10 seconds before you say “Action” and they transform into those characters. So there’s a very funny moment where he punches the hole in the wall and then just goes from Rick Grimes to Andy Lincoln going, “Oops.”

Aside from bloopers like these that thoroughly amuse the Walking Dead director, there are also humorous The Walking Dead scenes that actually play out thanks to adlib from the show’s actors. Last season of The Walking Dead, there was a scene where Daryl threw in a “you look ridiculous” line as Melissa walked past him, and it actually got into the cut. The Walking Dead director Nicotero shared that they try to inject a bit of humor every episode of The Walking Dead just to balance off the weight of the scenes, but there are adlibs that don’t make it into the final cut due to several reason.

Nicotero shares one anecdote when they were shooting a Walking Dead scene where Morgan and Michonne talked about Morgan’s candy bar, and he actually let the comedy play out a little further unlike previous The Walking Dead episodes. When they shot that particular scene, Michonne walks away and Morgan drops a “Hmmm, I know she took it, but she says she didn’t,” and Rick gives him a double take, “I’m not getting in the middle of this.” But Nicotero reveals that this didn’t make it into the final cut of The Walking Dead as well.

“Sadly, I don’t think that last little look made it into the episode, but it was something where we were shooting it, I put it in the cut, because I was like, ‘I think it was great,’ but just time-wise we had to trim it. But again, we should do the comedy version.”

Apart from these unexpected adlibs, The Walking Dead season 6 is actually trying to emulate more of the comic book frames just to give off that raw The Walking Dead feel. Entertainment Weekly also published some of the original storyboards for The Walking Dead season 6 from the The Walking Dead director himself. You can check out The Walking Dead season 6 storyboards here.

The production of The Walking Dead is already on its 10th episode, so expect more exclusive stories from the people behind The Walking Dead soon. The Walking Dead season 6 continues on AMC every Sunday, 9PM ET.

[All other images courtesy of AMC]