In our mid-season finale recap of The Walking Dead, the entrance of a new bad guy from the original comics was foreshadowed–Negan. We expressed excitement but obvious trepidation over his arrival, and now it sounds as if our mixed emotions were not entirely unfounded.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, comics creator and show EP Robert Kirkman gave us just enough info about the arrival of Negan and what we can expect heading into the second half of season 6:
As far as shake-ups go, we have lots of shake-ups from season to season. It keeps things interesting–keeps the blood pumping, I like to say–but Negan is kind of an atomic bomb that’s going to be dropped on the show and the show will probably never be the same after that. So buckle up, I guess?
And if you thought the Wolves were bad, you haven’t seen nothing yet. This new group in town, the Saviors, are a lot more dangerous–mostly in part due to their organization. They’ve been led by a man who is just as capable and intelligent as Rick is, but things appear to have gone in a slightly different direction. Per Kirkman:
The Wolves were psychotic, the Hunters [the group from Terminus] had a lot of weaknesses. When it comes to the Saviors, and Negan in particular, the way I’ve always thought about this in the comics is this is a group that’s led by a guy who’s had his morality dial a few clicks away from Rick toward the darker aspects of his personality, but is still an intellectual and capable leader who’s kept his group alive against all odds just as long as Rick has. It’s really the best encountering the best. When these two forces come head to head, things are gonna get interesting. This is a much different group than they’ve ever encountered. The Saviors are a group they’re not really prepared for.
Our survivors have made it through an awful lot already–but as we all know on The Walking Dead, no one really gets the opportunity to enjoy their victories for too long, or even have some semblance of safety. We don’t know how soon we’re going to encounter Negan and the Saviors in the latter half of season six, but we’d kind of be okay with putting it off a little longer.
(via Blastr)
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