‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7B: This Is War

Many Walking Dead fans have been less than enthused with Season 7 so far. It began with a premiere that many believed crossed a line with violence and gore that they found gratuitous. Since then, the whole dynamic of the show has been a major change from previous years. While everyone eagerly awaited the appearance of mega-villain Negan, opinions on how he has changed the zombie apocalypse world have not been great. We’ve become used to seeing Rick Grimes and his group fighting obstacles and villains on The Walking Dead, but that isn’t what we’ve seen so far in Season 7. He has felt hopeless and powerless. He has lost his will to fight. It seems that will change when TWD returns on February 12 — and in a big way. We’re talking all-out war.

Producer Gale Ann Hurd spoke to Digital Spy recently and told them that the old fighting attitude will return in the remaining eight episodes of this season.

“Rick and the gang have found their mojo again and they are going to work on rising up against Negan, and doing it right this time. As we saw last season, they underestimated his strength and just how nefarious a leader he was. They’re not going to do that again.”

Walking Dead photos recently released by AMC show him trying to gain the support of Gregory, the Hilltop leader, and Ezekiel, the pacifist leader of the Sanctuary. He knows that an important part of any strategy to take down Negan is having enough people in the fight. The ruthless and dirty fighter will not hesitate to literally bash someone’s head in. There’s no chance that he will go quietly or easily. It’s going to take a large united group of people to defeat him. The AMC synopsis of the next eight episodes of The Walking Dead says,

“We’ll meet new survivors in incredible places. We’ll see Rick and the group tested in ways we’ve never seen before. We’ll see treachery from people we trust. Rick is confident as he will see his group and many others band together with the common goal of taking down Negan. But no amount of planning will prepare the group for all-out war with Negan and his army.”

The last time we saw them, we got the impression that Rick was ready to fight again. Daryl returned and gave him his gun. They shared a hug and looks that made us hope that they were sick of playing the victim and were going to take back their power. It seems that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

This isn’t news to fans of the comics upon which AMC’s Walking Dead is based. Those comic books are written by Robert Kirkman, who is also very involved in the production of the show. Although the TV version doesn’t exactly follow the comics, the storyline so far this season has very closely followed the comics, which include an all-out war between Rick and Negan.

Hollywood Reporter states that about 17 million people tuned in for the Walking Dead Season 7 premiere to see who was on the receiving end of Lucille’s deadly blow. October viewership was near record numbers for the show. Viewership for the mid-season finale was down about 19 percent from the one for Season 6. Some of this is to be expected from a series that’s been around as long as The Walking Dead. Still, it was the third most watched series, falling behind big hitters Big Bang Theory and NCIS, so it’s still a very strong show.

Check out AMC’s sneak peek at the February 12 premiere below.

[Featured Image by AMC]