The Walking Dead - Season 5 and onwards

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Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s take on comic book villain

Spoiler

Negan

already has one detractor... his mother.

When I took the show, she was like, ‘What does this mean with The Good Wife?’ She was devastated that this could be the end. I was like, ‘Mom, keep your pants on. We’ll see what happens.’

He’s a game-changer. It’s a complete 180 from what I’m doing on The Good Wife, which as an actor is a dream come true. I get to be the biggest ass in the world.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Mom Was't Excited With His Walking Dead Negan Casting

 

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Spoiler: Thing about Carl, link is inside, don't click this if you don't want to know

So yeah... here's young Carl (Chandler Riggs) with a eye out. A lot of us expected this to happen in the recent midseason final during his struggles with an armed-up Ron, but it seems it'll go down a different way when The Walking Dead returns next Sunday.

In the comics he loses the peeper - and a good chunk of his face - after being accidentally shot by Douglas Monroe, but since that character never even existed (he was replaced by Deanna), it'll obviously be someone else pulling the trigger.

Massive SPOILER Revealed On International Key Art For THE WALKING DEAD

 

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Just in time for Valentine's Day. Romance is in the air at AMC.

(a cliffhanger spoiler)

The First 4 Minutes of the Mid-Season Premiere: The Walking Dead: Season 6

 

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Greg Nicotero teases that the best is yet to come this season in the wake of the midseason premiere:

That episode was all set up to build. We set the release valve and we trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle and build up to to that explosive moment in Episode 9. It’s not like every episode is going to have that same tone or that same method of madness. It was the end of that section of our story, very much like The Walking Dead does. We’ll have a little mini-story and that story will go four, five, six, eight episodes, and then the show will take a little bit of a left turn or a right turn and morph into something different.

Spoiler: About Neegan.

I think where we’re headed now is probably the most exciting modulation of The Walking Dead that we’ve ever done, because we know that we’re getting into meeting the Saviors, we know that Negan is right around the corner, so the show is really poised to take a very big shift in tone.

Greg Nicotero Says The Most Exciting Modulation Of The Walking Dead Is Ahead​

 

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Greg Nicotero talks about special effects to the Guardian.

It was the most choreographed disembowelment I’ve ever been part of,” says Greg Nicotero, tossing back his luxuriant locks. The 52-year-old Emmy- and Oscar-winning special effects expert is talking about the scene in the current season of The Walking Dead in which two humans, Nicholas and Glenn, are surrounded by a herd of zombies (or walkers as they are called on the show). Rather than be eaten alive, Nicholas shoots himself in the head. Then the walkers fall on his body.

God of gore: the effects legend behind Reservoir Dogs and The Walking Dead spills his secrets

 

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Michael Cudlitz talks about playing Sgt Abraham:

Moving on to season six, is there love in the air with Sasha?

There’s always love in the air. Like [Robert] Kirkman has said even two months ago that he plans in the comic to kill the Rick character – he said Rick won’t make it through to the end of the comics… probably. I don’t know if that’s true or if it’s a way to make everybody fear that Rick might die at one time. The audience thinks it’s smart and that ‘oh they’ll never kill that character’ and they constantly go ‘Nope [evil chuckle] – bye bye Hershel!’ What the hell did the old man with one leg do! He’s the voice of reason! [everyone laughs]. That’s one of the things that Kirkman has said, that Gimple has said – you need to be constantly reminded as an audience member that it’s a dangerous world, because you get complacent and you think you know these characters and that’s when the rug gets pulled from underneath you.

Abraham’s made his feelings known, but do you think it’s reciprocated?

Well yeah, she didn’t tell him to go pound sand or anything. She said ‘you’ve got some sh*t to deal with’, he said ‘yeah I do’. Maybe we go back and deal with the sh*t, maybe we move forward.

How is his relationship different with Sasha than it is with Rosita?

I don’t know if we know that yet. I think that’s one of the things we’re going to find out and hopefully enjoy watching. Why would he choose to leave a strong, sexy, beautiful woman? Or choose one over the other? Or does he have to choose one over the other?

The Walking Dead: Michael Cudlitz interview

 

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Michael Cudlitz talks about playing Sgt Abraham:

The Walking Dead: Michael Cudlitz interview

Seems like Abraham made his choice, at least symbolically, when he left the jewelry Rosita had made for him behind at Hilltop. Rosita seems like a dangerous woman to spurn.

 

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Rosita seems like a dangerous woman to spurn.

I definitely wouldn't want to arouse that hornet's nest. Losing your privates might be the best thing that happens to you.

 

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Andrew Lincoln says there’s not much happiness in store for Rick in the rest of season six.

I think he will quickly see that there is… the narrative moves very, very quickly in these next six episodes. As always, sometimes the crisis gets in the way of perhaps the lighter things. I think you’re going to find an increase in story and pace and jeopardy interfering with a lot of the burgeoning romance, unfortunately, but you never know. You never know. We live in hope for more scenes, more lovey scenes. There’s always space for love in the apocalypse.

'The Walking Dead': Andrew Lincoln Talks Richonne, Jessie, Jesus, and the 'Bleak' Season Finale

Robert Kirkman discusses how the show plans to approach Negan’s extremely colorful language:

I would say that there are certain words that try as I might, we are not allowed to say on AMC, and those are certain words that Negan likes to say. So those words are going to be filmed, and people are going to be able to get those words, but there are definitely some broadcast limitations that we’re going to have to deal with.

We’re sorting that out now, but I will say that, worst-case scenario, the extras will be extra-special on Blu-ray. I mean, we’re trying to explore some other more interesting options, but that’s the bare minimum of what we’ll be doing.

'The Walking Dead': Negan's entrance was filmed two different ways

 

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For the second season in a row, AMC has opted to expand The Walking Dead’s finale running time. Entertainment Weekly reports that the finale of season 6 will be 90 minutes long, as opposed to the standard-issue hour.

The finale episode is scheduled to air on Sunday the 3rd of April at 9pm, on AMC.

The Walking Dead season 6B: 90-minute finale running time confirmed

 

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Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha) and Kenric Green (Scott) talks about second half of season 6:

Having spoken to many of your colleagues over the years, they always struggle if they’ve worked closely with someone who’s then killed off. Sasha’s lost her brother and Bob and that put her in a bad place. Has that loss also difficult for you on and off the show?

SMG: We always say that’s the worst part of the job. It’s the absolute worst part of the job. We get close quickly and we say all the time we’re a family, but we mean that. It’s not just a joke, it’s not just something we say in interviews because it sounds good, it’s the truth and so even when new people come onto the show, they go ‘Oh this is really like this? You guys really love each other and really love this job and are really a family?’

And it is because it’s so hard and we all band together in the woods, in some town in Georgia. It’s hard because these people are your actual friends and when they leave the show, they do leave your life as well in a sense. We’re all actors, we’re all busy, we all travel, so it’s hard to link up schedules when you’re not forced to see each other at work. So when someone goes, you don’t know when you might actually see them again and it’s really sad. You know we cry and we hug and then we cry! [laughs]

I thought it was interesting back towards the mid-season that it was Sasha, Daryl and Abraham who were paired off together, when they were the three that really struggled to settle in Alexandria – is it difficult for you when your character is made to keep distance from the others in the show?

SMG: Yes, that’s a good question. It is actually and the first time I experienced splitting off was in season four when the prison fell and we all ran away and it was me and Lauren and Lawrence and it is hard, because we do love working with each other and there’s a sense of excitement when all of us are together and we feed off each other and there’s a lot of play in between takes as well. Of course we’re down to business between action and cut, but it’s fun, almost like a party when all of us are together, so when we split off it is disorienting.

And when it was me and Norman and Michael, we were split off for a long time and you hear stories from set and you’re like ‘Man, we were just stuck in this car leading the walkers away!’ But it’s also great, because when you have a cast as large as ours I appreciate the writers doing that, because at some point you have to when there’s so many of us and you want to delve into peoples’ stories more deeply, so there is a bit of separation that has to happen.

After what she’s been through, how easily would she be able to open her heart?

SMG: I, as Sasha, I’m ready to live again. I’m ready to engage and for the longest time from when you first see me, I’m very hard, very distant, very pragmatic. Losing Bob and then losing my brother, who was all that I had, he was my connection to my past and Bob was my connection to my future, losing it all and spiralling all the way down, as low as I have ever been in my life. Now I’ve come out of it, what I realised is that from the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, I had put up this defence, this wall to protect myself, because I didn’t think I could handle being connected to people. I am now finally ready to live and I say it to Abraham when he asks if I’m doing this mission because I want to die and I say no, as for the first time in a long time, I don’t want to die. I’m ready to live for real and engage and so when you do that, it does open you up.

Is that what we see in the future then, that she opens up more?

SMG: Absolutely, a lot of that is discussed in episode six when I’m talking to Abraham and I’m talking about self-awareness and you can be all in the action and what it really is doing is you’re hiding behind it and not taking responsibility for your actions, choices and your pain, and so I have now done that and seen the light and I’m ready to engage and really be a part of this community. So it makes me vulnerable for lots of things. It’s really an honour to play someone who goes all the way to wanting to die and then coming out of it, it’s a really inspiring story.

The Walking Dead's Sasha and Scott talk season 6

 

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Nicotero on shooting and directing Season 6:

You’ve directed some of the best episodes and a lot of that I think is because you’re able to deftly handle the effects side of things, while also getting a lot of the best character moments and performances – is that because the effects side is second nature and you can shift focus more easily?

Well I’ll tell you a great story… when we were shooting Hateful Eight, I’m sitting on set and it took quite a long time between set ups, just because of the complexity of 70mm and the re-fridgerated set, so we would set outside between set-ups and all the actors would sit around, so you’d have Bruce Dern and Sam Jackson and Walt and Kurt and we’d all sit and just tell stories.

Bruce Dern started telling a story about John Frankenheimer and Black Sunday and he says “So I’m cast in this movie and I went to a party and John Frankenheimer’s there and I went up and I shook his hand and I just said “Mr Frankenheimer, I just want to thank you for putting me in your movie, I’m going to give you the best performance and be the best performer that I can be” and Frankenheimer said “Well listen, you already are the best actor, that’s why you got the part. My job is – I don’t need to give you notes – my job as the director is to create an environment where you can do your best work, that’s my job. If a director comes on set and it’s tense, you literally have to clear the table and let the actors do what they’re good at.”

And when I realised that I thought I have a great rapport with my actors, because they trust me. And then I read an interview with Quentin and he said that he and Harvey Keitel had exactly the same conversation on Reservoir Dogs! Where he would go up to give Harvey notes and Keitel would be like “Listen, just let me do one, I’ll do a take and then we can talk about it.” But Quentin took a very similar thing away from that, which I did, which is that you just have to lay the groundwork and let the actors do the best that they can do and you’ll get great episodes.

So every one of my episodes, I make sure that we’re not rushing, that the actors have that time to do another take if they want to try something different. Like Andy Lincoln is always that way, he’ll do a couple and then sometimes it gets really big, or he’ll pull back, or sometimes it’s not enough, but you have to give the actors the opportunity to explore it – it’s like tuning an instrument, at first it might [makes an out of pitch noise] but by the time you’ve finished, you have something beautiful.

Any piece of advice I could ever give to a director would be that – give the actors the ability to be creative on set and you have to create that environment and so that’s what I do. And thank you for saying that, because it’s something that’s tremendously important to me, because I’ve seen other episodes and there’s other days where the actors get two takes and the sun’s going down and it’s like [snaps fingers] “Two takes, out! Two takes, out!” and then you watch the episode and you’re like ‘God I wish there was just a little more flavour to that scene, or one other piece of coverage to pull us into that emotion' and it’s hard.

For sure I’ve probably missed a couple of beats here and there in these giant episodes, especially the last one that had a lot of moving parts, but the actors know that’s the environment I create, so when they hear I’m directing an episode – other than the fact they’re like ‘Well Greg always kills people, so somebody is gonna die!” – but they also know I’m going to create that environment for them.

The Walking Dead: Greg Nicotero interview

 

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The seventh season of AMC's The Walking Dead will begin principal photography on Monday.

One might expect that means that they're finally going to film the scene where a beloved character meets their end at the hands of Negan, as teased by the Season Six finale...but let's face it: The Walking Dead likes to tease out such revelations as long as they can. Don't be surprised if the first episode they shoot is something that fleshes out some of Negan's backstory.

Filming will start around Old Griffin Rd and Brown Dr – Bridges Dr near Hampton, GA. According to Spoiling Dead Fans, via On Location Vacations. The "base camp" for the production will be at the Atlanta Motor Speedway for the start of Season Seven.

The Walking Dead will return in October, but fans will be fixed on footage expected to come out of Comic Con to see if they can parse out who lives and who dies in the premiere.

The Walking Dead Season 7 Starts Filming On May 2

 

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When The Walking Dead returns for its seventh season in October, we'll definitely be saying goodbye to a certain central character. However, with that, we'll also be meeting a new leader: Ezekiel.

Spoiler

Ezekiel, or King Ezekiel, is the leader of The Kingdom. He has guided a group of survivors through the trails and tribulations of the apocalypse and found sanctuary on a college campus. Plus, he keeps a tiger by his side.

Five Actors Who Could Play Ezekiel On The Walking Dead

 

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Well, we can scrap Daryl and Glenn from Negan's kill list. Apparently Steven Yeun is shooting in the set. What happened to his film shoot?

The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon and Glenn Rhee are always quick to rush to the aid of someone in distress, and the same applies to the actors who play them.

Earlier today, Norman Reedus and Steven Yeun stopped to aid some motorists who were in the need of assistance after a traffic accident. According to The Citizen, Reedus and Yeun were photographed standing beside two vehicles that had been involved in a collision at Georgia Highway 54 West and Line Creek Drive in Peachtree City, Georgia.

No other details were available on the fender-bender, but other reports indicate that Reedus and Yeun were riding their motorcycles to set when they noticed the accident. The two Walking Dead stars reportedly stopped to make sure everyone was ok.

Both Reedus and Yeun are currently filming The Walking Dead Season 7 in Senoia, Georgia.

The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus And Steven Yeun Come To Aid Of Car Crash Victims

 

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The new season will be hard to watch for some fans but it will be especially hard on one certain character according to its writer and creator Robert Kirkman.

“The premiere episode of season 7 is going to be hard on everyone," Kirkman said during a Reddit AMA before adding, "Rick especially."

While a small group may perceive the comment as a tease of Rick getting Negan's bat, it's most certainly not, though Kirkman did say that Rick would die eventually during the same Q&A.

What it means is that Rick is watching his power be given to Negan. All that he has worked for and all that he has created is being taken from him and at the same time, someone he loves and cares for is being beaten to death in front of him. He will likely feel most of the blame, considering he launched an assault on the Saviors with a little too much confidence.

The Walking Dead Season 7 Will Be Hard On Rick Especially

 

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I have a feeling Michonne is the one getting Negan's bat, don't want it to be but I do think it is a possibilty.

 

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I have a feeling Michonne is the one getting Negan's bat, don't want it to be but I do think it is a possibilty.

Don't say that. I'll riot. Or are you saying that all Rick's women die? He doesn't deserve happiness?

 

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If Negan is looking to show Rick who is the boss then he is going to take out someone who is important to him. We can more or less rule out Carl, we know Glen and Daryl have been filming for next series that leaves Maggie and Michonne. The others who are there including Abraham and Eugine aren't really part of Rick's inner circle and wouldn't hurt him as much.

I think Negan has inside information on our group. He will take out someone who is important to Rick thinking it will break him.
Maggie or Michonne. Speculation on my part.