‘The Walking Dead’: When Will Season 7 Be Released On Netflix?
Warning: This article may contain Walking Dead Season 7 spoilers.
AMC finished airing the first half of the Walking Dead Season 7 a couple of weeks ago, and fans are already wondering when the latest episodes will be released on Netflix.
Unfortunately, Season 7A has not yet hit the streaming network; however, there is still a way for viewers to catch up with the show. AMC released all eight new episodes on their website in time for Christmas.
Fans can watch the controversial season premiere — in which Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) met the end of their journeys, courtesy of Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) barbed-wire baseball bat, Lucille — and continue on to the midseason finale, which featured more bloody deaths. AMC also released the last three episodes of The Talking Dead, so fans can get their fix of all the behind-the-scenes gossip and cast interviews before Walking Dead Season 7B airs in early 2017.
As for when the new season will appear on Netflix, no official date has yet been announced. However, the network typically begins streaming the previous season two to three weeks before a new season premieres. That means fans may have to wait until October 2017 to stream Walking Dead Season 7.
As for Season 7B, Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple told Comicbook that the second half of the season will be very different from the first half. That will come as a relief to fans who didn’t enjoy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) playing the victim to Negan throughout the first eight episodes of the current season.
“I will say 7B’s vibe is very different from 7A’s vibe. The ending of 7B is very different than the beginning of 7A. Just the vibe in 7B, I was just talking about it with Andy [Lincoln] last night. It’s just a very, very different half season than the half season that preceded it. Even with structure, what we’re doing right now with the episodes and seeing where everyone is at, the structure is very, very different than the back half. There’s a lot more variety to the structure. It’s just a very, very different situation, but 6, 7, 8… Wow, we’re really close, aren’t we? I would say the end of 7A is very different than the beginning of 7A. That’s the thing that kind of launches that different tone of 7B.”
The Walking Dead Season 7 may need to change things up. As the New York Times reported, the midseason finale only pulled in 15.6 million viewers, which is about 3 million less than the Season 6 midseason finale pulled in last year.
While the series is still one of the top-rated shows on television, Season 7 consistently hemorrhaged viewers after the season premiere, which attracted a massive 20.8 million viewers. That means Walking Dead lost about 5.6 million viewers over the course of Season 7A. By comparison, Season 6 only lost 1.2 million viewers between its premiere and midseason finale.
As Forbes pointed out, there are many possible reasons for the decline in ratings — besides fans not liking Rick subjugating to Negan. Top fan gripes include not liking Negan, missing fan-favorites Glenn and Abraham, and feeling jerked around by Walking Dead showrunners. Other possibilities include fans being frustrated by the fractured storylines — there were five main locations represented in the first five episodes of Walking Dead Season 7 — and fans just becoming generally bored with the series.
No matter the reasons, the decline in ratings could finally signal the beginning of the end for Walking Dead if something doesn’t change for AMC’s flagship series in Season 7B or in the already greenlit Season 8.
What do you think of The Walking Dead Season 7 so far? Are you concerned about the ratings drop?
The Walking Dead Season 7 returns to AMC on Feb. 12, 2017.
[Featured Image by AMC]
