‘The Walking Dead’: Season 7 Will Be Full Of ‘Ricktatorships’ As New Groups Are Introduced And Characters Are Killed Off

Ever since the Season 6 finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead aired, people have been talking about who Negan killed. However, let’s have a look at what this death will mean for all the groups vying for leadership in Season 7.

Spoiler alert: This article discusses Seasons 6 and 7 of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Please proceed with caution of you wish to avoid spoilers.

Season 6 of The Walking Dead ended with an almighty cliffhanger. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) killed someone in Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) group. The problem is, no one knows who yet. AMC have had to keep everything under wraps between seasons. It has been a very long six months for fans trying to work out who Negan killed.

How Rick reacts to this death is something that will be explored in Season 7 according to the show’s creator, Robert Kirkman. When interviewed by WSJ’s Speakeasy, Kirkman explained that fans are going to see “a shaken Rick Grimes in Season 7.”

Rick had arrived at a very dangerous point in Season 6 of The Walking Dead. Thanks to an impressive track record of taking out the bad guys, Rick had become very arrogant in regard to Negan’s group. This is what led to Rick’s group being captured by Negan and the Saviors. Now, whoever Negan kills will be entirely Rick’s fault. Season 7 will likely follow Rick’s decent into despair. Kirkman also teases the events from the Season 6 cliffhanger and the ripples it causes will affect other surrounding groups. The Saviors, after all, have been threatening many groups in the area. These groups and how they interact will be explored in Season 7.

Along with Negan’s and Rick’s group, Season 7 of The Walking Dead will feature four groups according to an interview Robert Kirkman did with The Hollywood Reporter.

“Season 7 as a whole will have so many new environments, so many new characters and so many new scenarios that it will almost seem like season one of an entirely different show. It’ll have all the stuff you love from The Walking Dead but this isn’t a show where you’re ever going to be, ‘Oh my God, am I still watching this show in season seven? Enough is enough, I get it.’ We’re telling different stories with different characters that have new and exciting and cool stuff [happening]. This season more than any other changes the stage that we’re telling stories in.”

All of these groups have their own strong leaders, and, as WSJ points out, Season 7 of The Walking Dead will be “a world of competing ‘Ricktatorships.'”

However, with so many competing groups in Season 7 of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman prepares fans for the worst. “From the comic book series, we do focus on different places,” Kirkman told The Hollywood Reporter. “The story did divide a little more; it didn’t focus on one group as much as it did.” Among all of this, Kirkman promises to kill off some characters in order to tighten the amount of characters in the TV series. How many, he doesn’t say, but it seems likely Season 7 of The Walking Dead will be brutal right from the very start.

In The Walking Dead comics, at this point in time, Rick’s group, along with other groups, are gearing up to an all out war. Considering how many new groups are now being introduced into Seasons 6 and 7 of The Walking Dead, it seems likely this is also the avenue AMC will take.

As WSJ points out, the previous six seasons of The Walking Dead has dealt, in an insular way, with Rick’s group and how they deal with outside threats. Season 7 will look at these outside threats more broadly, taking the show away from Rick’s group and broadening the viewers horizon. The question is, can these groups band together and help bring down Negan? Only by tuning into Season 7 of The Walking Dead will reveal all.

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

Season 7 of The Walking Dead premieres with Episode 1 (entitled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”) on AMC on Sunday, October 23, at 9 p.m. ET. The official synopsis for this episode (which is named after a comment made in Season 1 of The Walking Dead) is below.

“Last season ended with Rick and our group kneeling helplessly before Negan and his group. What Negan does will haunt those who survive forever.”

[Featured Image by AMC]