‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7: A New Casting Call Indicates A New Group’s Arrival, But Who Are All These Groups Anyway?

Many fans of The Walking Dead have been busy concentrating on who Negan killed in the Season 6 finale. For others, though, they are looking at hints left in that episode which will indicate where the show will lead in Season 7. Considering in Season 6 two new groups appeared, a new casting call indicates a third group could also make an appearance. In fact, they probably already have.

SPOILER ALERT: This article speculates about Season 7 of AMC’s The Walking Dead as well as discusses the comic books the TV series it is based on. Please proceed with caution if you wish to avoid spoilers.

For a long time, The Walking Dead has remained a fairly small group that moved from one location to another, barely meeting the living among the dead. However, recently, the group has discovered the huge Alexandria complex. This introduced a massive amount of red jackets for AMC to play with. However, that wasn’t enough, so in quick succession, the Hilltop colony and Negan’s Saviors were also introduced. For fans of The Walking Dead who do not read the comics, things got confusing. Who was Jesus and his group? Was this group the same group run by Negan? What about the Wolves, are they even still around? How were they all connected? Why is there such a large concentration of humans in this area? So many questions, so few answers so far from AMC. But at least, using the comic books as a source, the groups can be sorted out relatively easily, including that group you may have missed in the Season 6 finale.

The Saviors

This is Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) group. They showed up in excessive numbers in the Season 6 finale of The Walking Dead indicating the Saviors are a force to be reckoned with. In episodes prior to that, Jesus (Tom Payne) and his group, Hilltop, showed apparent fear about Negan and the Saviors, a fear that Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) should have heeded.

According to what we have seen in Season 6 of The Walking Dead, the Saviors are not only a large group but a hostile one. They obviously think they are the main rulers over the area they reside in and expect tithing from smaller groups in return for protection. Although, the protection is really just a thinly veiled threat coming directly from the Saviors themselves. Basically, you give them supplies and they won’t kill you. Season 7 will probably see them continue in this way until someone (or perhaps several groups) decides to stop him once and for all.

Hilltop

This group has had a relatively small part in Season 6 of The Walking Dead. Arguably they were only there as a tool to introduce just how fearsome Negan’s group really is. It will be interesting to see where they will go in Season 7 and if they will play any major role beyond that.

However, if AMC follows the comic books as inspiration, Hilltop just might get a larger role moving forward into Season 7 of The Walking Dead. According to the comics, Hilltop becomes the base for a massive outright war between Hilltop, the Kingdom, and the Saviors. And, as ComicBook points out, if AMC follows the comic books for this story line, that will mean Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan) will survive Negan’s bat and her pregnancy woes to become the eventual leader of Hilltop.

The Kingdom

There is a theory on just about everyone in the line up which resulted in the Season 6 finale cliffhanger of Negan beating someone to death with his baseball bat, Lucille. So this should make Season 7 trailers that are normally released in July at the San Diego Comic Con either very interesting or very bland. After all, anyone from that line up that shows up in any promotional video for Season 7 of The Walking Dead will be a confirmed survivor as Screen Crush pointed out. So having a brand new group like the Kingdom to introduce will certainly help with any promotion they will do for Season 7 while still maintaining the Season 6 cliffhanger until the show returns in October. But who are the Kingdom? And why are we so sure they are turning up in Season 7 of The Walking Dead?

Well, for starters, it is very likely fans got to see some Kingdom characters in the Season 6 finale of The Walking Dead. While Rick’s group was trying to avoid Negan and the Saviors, Morgan (Lennie James) was trying to locate Carol (Melissa McBride). Carol had been shot by a member of the Saviors and really just wanted to be left for dead, but Morgan rescued her anyway. In the process, a small group of characters arrived on horseback and offered their assistance. It was their distinctive armor that was the giveaway as, in the comic books, characters from the Kingdom also wear armor similar to this.

Added to this is the fact TVLine announced a casting call for a recurring character called Augustus that bears a strong resemblance to the Kingdom’s leader, Ezekiel. So who is Ezekiel? In his previous life, Ezekiel was a zookeeper who now is the self-proclaimed leader of the Kingdom. He also has a pet tiger called Shiva. Yes, you read that right. It is yet unclear if Shiva will make an appearance in the TV series, but a hastily retracted image published on Skybound’s (the creators of the Walking Dead comics) Instagram account indicate Shiva will, at least, get an appearance according to Screen Crush. The original image (which can be viewed here) had the caption, “Happy #nationalpetday! Don’t worry, #WalkingDead show fans. You’ll get to meet Ezekiel and Shiva next season.” However, this image was quickly pulled and the caption replaced to the one below.

Happy #nationalpetday! Hope you love your pet today as much as Ezekiel loves Shiva????????????

A photo posted by The Walking Dead (@thewalkingdead) on Apr 11, 2016 at 1:22pm PDT

Are you looking forward to Season 7 of The Walking Dead? Let us know by commenting below!

As yet, AMC has not confirmed the Season 7 premiere date for The Walking Dead, although it is anticipated to be sometime in October of this year after the finale of Season 2 of its companion program, Fear The Walking Dead.

[Image via AMC]