Hey guys! I’m coming to you live from Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. In a few moments, the cast and crew of AMC’s The Walking Dead will take the stage to give folks their first look at the upcoming season. Stay tuned right here to live updates! If you can’t be in the room, I promise this is almost as good. I will be using character names instead of actor names because liveblogging is a speedster’s game.
Kind of.
12:20PM PDT – The Fear the Walking Dead panel just ended and The Walking Dead cast should be on stage soon!
12:25PM – The cast and crew is on stage and the crowd is losing their minds. Here we go.
12:27PM – The panel begins with a tribute to John Bernecker, the stuntman who died while working on the set of The Walking Dead. He was beloved in the stunt community, he was living his dreams and helping other do the same. They weren’t sure they should do the panel today but they wanted to celebrate John and everyone’s work. Here’s the trailer.
12:34PM – “I hope you’ve got your shitting pants on,” Negan says to Father Gabriel as zombies try to break into the darkened room they’re in. Cut to Rick standing in profile in the setting sun. Carol in a car, Carl looking at walkers in the car, Morgan with his stick, and Maggie, Ezekiel and his army, Daryl drinking out of a canteen while zombies close in, Michonne and Sasha driving, oh God so many quick cuts I can’t keep up. Move to a hallway with an electric light glowing, zombie trying to eat a plastic bag and stuck on a stick. Looks like they’re rebuilding the wall. Someone spying from inside a shipping container. Lots of cars bringing the Alexandra wall to the other town. Guessing it’s the new home base. Jesus setting a trap with gasoline and a cardboard box. “Everything we’ve become, no matter what comes next. We’ve won. We’ve already won!”
Montage! Daryl shooting a gun on a motorcycle with an explosion in the background. “We have to keep our faith in each other” says Maggie. CAROL HAS A SHOTGUN “Cover your ears,“ she says. Barely any Negan in this trailer, thank Christ. SO. MANY. Explosions. So much gunfire. They’re either blowing their load on the trailer or they got a ton more budget. Trailer ends with a walking cane close-up and strings instrumental. Um, I think we’re back in Rick’s hospital room but he’s old. So, it was all a dream?
12:37PM – Another trailer, this time of highlights from all six seasons.
12:40PM – Moving straight into questions from the audience, guessing they don’t want to spoil anything from the upcoming season. Someone asking if the cast ever graves a comedic scene. Carl says he’s been trying to get them to do a musical episode for years. Carol says they spoof themselves often off camera. (I wish they’d film that more). Ezekiel says he gets a tiger and a Jerry so he definitely gets enough comedy already.
12:42PM – Negan says every night is a karaoke night for him.
12:44PM – Negan hopes his relationship with Carl will affect Carl’s relationship with Rick. Carl is very excited to dig into that part ever since he read it in the comic. Segues into Rick talking about the first scene they ever filmed with the car block with him and Shane before the zombie invasions and Rick kept trying to drive on the left side of the road (because he’s British. To go from that to be about to hit 100 episodes is one the best things in his life.
12:53PM – Negan likes his character’s sense of humor the best and his need to wear a leather jacket in 100 degree Georgia head is his least favorite thing.
12:57PM – Asked who is the best influence on Judith is outside her immediate family and who is the worst. The answer to both is apparently Negan. Someone else asks Rick if he’ll ever nail saying Carl properly, Carl confirms that in episode 4×09 that’s all he said, “CORAL.” Michonne tries to defend him by saying Rick was beat up pretty bad. Morgan asks if anyone has survived playing the “Coral/Carl” drinking game.
1:00PM – Ezekiel would love to see an episode that sends the cast to Washington D.C. Questioner from Sweden asks if we’ll ever see The Walking Dead in the rest of the world. Robert Kirkman says they’d love to do that, but the cast demands filming somewhere cooler.
1:03PM – Seven shits, two goddamns, and zero fucks is all the suits will allow Negan to have so it’s been difficult to dial it back, which is why they have Blu-Ray, which has no restrictions on cussing.
1:05PM – If Carl hadn’t gotten his part on The Walking Dead, he probably wouldn’t be an actor today as both of his parents are teachers and it was getting impossible for them to juggle work and taking their son to auditions.
1:10PM – Robert Kirkman says they’ll never explore a person immune to the zombie virus or trying to find the cure. This isn’t a show about scientists and it’s unrelatable. If there were a zombie outbreak in Hall H, maybe five people would be able to help cure it. It’s a show about survival, not science.
1:12PM – Final question: What would it take for your character to turn into someone like Negan, besides the death of Glenn of course. Negan doesn’t understand why that’s a bad thing. Ezekiel loves about the show that everyone is in a bad situation but not everyone turns out like Negan. Everyone gets knocked down but they come back and fight and that’s what draws people to the show. Not everyone turns into a pscyhopath. They’re going to show the trailer again. That’s all she wrote!
Stay tuned as I’ll be liveblogging the Game of Thrones panel next!
