‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7: No More ‘Ricktatorship’, Rick Grimes Belongs To Negan — Producer Talks The ‘TWD’ World From Episode 2 And Beyond [Spoilers]

The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere was quite the eye opener (no pun intended) into Episode 2 and beyond. The audience viewed Negan and his Saviors usher Rick Grimes and his group to the new world order. Rick became so addicted to running the show for years that Negan had to take some extra steps to swallow that pill, and Rick most certainly did.

The Day Came When “The Ricktatorship” Won’t Be

Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd spoke with ET Online and she admitted that the “Ricktatorship” is finally at an end. It was only two episodes into Season 3 that Rick Grimes traded in his humanity for the purpose of survival. It was this significant change in his personality that allowed him to survive. Negan was fully aware of his dirty looks and had to nip it in the bud come the Season 7 premiere and it stuck pretty firmly. It even shows in this new TV promo.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

The Walking Dead Episode 2’s “The Well” footage shows Rick admitting to this as it appears that what had happened wound up fully ingrained. Although another spoiler revealed that “The Well” won’t have Negan nor Rick in it, the clip firms things up of where Rick stands with the Lucille-wielding tyrant.

Hurd gives her take on this standing.

“We are no longer in the world of the Ricktatorship. We’ve always seen Rick making the choices as to whether he wants to leave or not and what the premiere proved is that it’s Negan’s world that they’re living in now. That was the brutal reckoning that made it very clear to Rick that things had changed completely…. It is very much about Rick and the choices that he has made and has to accept and to realize and where he is in this new world order.”

However, do you think there will come a time that Glenn’s death will be avenged? It seems Maggie wants to continue resistance against Negan as Episode 1 concluded, but Rick was trying to convince her that it was obviously a bad idea considering his one-on-one jam session with the evil man.

Producer Says High-Functioning Community Offers Hope

The Walking Dead’s first half of Season 7 synopsis via Den of Geek reveals a seemingly hopeless situation under the thumb of Negan as he has made aware to the group the consequences of them not cooperating. Although those characters not included in the deadly line-up have gone a different direction, this first half covers the characters starting over.

The Walking Dead’s entire Season 7 overall theme is about “beginning again.”

“The world isn’t what they thought it was. It’s bigger and it’s even more dangerous.”

Believe it or not, just like in life, there are light and abysmal moments in The Walking Dead. Hurd mentions that it’s not all the dreariness that had been reflected in the Episode 1 premiere. Although Negan thinks such a society would not exist in this world, it appears that The Kingdom offers otherwise.

“The other great thing about this season is being able to open up and see, not only the danger and brutality of Negan, but the fact that there are other communities that are functioning. That provide some hope in this dark world.”

Even on The Walking Dead, the show does represent the human spirit, and like in Frank Darabont’s Shawshank Redemption, illustrates the power of hope. The director was the creator of Season 6 and the continuing Season 7 episode, so it would make sense to see this hopefulness represented in the AMC TV series.

To see how it all plays out, continue watching AMC’s The Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 2 premiere of “The Well” as it debuts Sunday, Oct. 30 at 9 p.m. EST. Hopefully, this will shed some light on the things to come when the communities interact with each other.

[Featured Image by Gene Page/AMC]