One of the issues among many that fans of The Walking Dead had with the huge sixth-season cliffhanger was the concern that it would be ruined by the Internet before the seventh-season premiere aired. There’s no way, fans argued, that The Walking Dead could keep under wraps the identity of Negan’s victim for six months. That was certainly the case on the big fifth-season cliffhanger on Game of Thrones, and arguably, The Walking Dead fans are even more obsessed with spoilers. There are entire online communities specifically devoted to spoiling the series.
Six weeks after the finale aired, has the Internet managed to spoil the identity of the character who was Lucille’d by Negan?
No, surprisingly. Not yet. It has not been for lack of trying. We’ve tried to read the tea leaves. We’ve analyzed the video. We’ve tried to read the clues in a real-life traffic accident. Fans have even gone so far as to petition AMC to reveal the victim.
So far, however, we have no better idea of who died in the finale now than when the season ended. Filming has just begun on the third episode on season seven, and while we can say that the tiger, Shiva, is on set, spoiler fans have no clue who died in the sixth-season finale. Producers have been diligent, so far, in keeping that information hidden. The seventh-season opening scene was shot in an inside location so spies couldn’t figure it out. Much of the shooting for the first half of the season is also taking place at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, so it’s been difficult for spying fans to get a good look at what’s going on inside the studio. A few sightings of actors in Negan’s lineup have been made in the past few weeks, but there’s been nothing to suggest that those actors weren’t sticking around to shoot flashback scenes or even to throw fans off the scent.
It’s only June, and there are still four more months until the seventh-season premiere, so the reveal may be spoiled before it airs. If you think about it, however, The Walking Dead has historically been very good about keeping spoilers under wraps, save for Glenn’s death fake-out., which was ruined when people saw Steven Yeun on set after he supposedly died. This, however, is a harder plot point to spoil because it’s not about whether a character died, but who died. The only way to prove that is by deducing the victim based on who is not on set. With actors filming both inside and outside, it becomes very difficult to discern who is around and who no longer is.
Of course, this being the Internet, we’ll probably make it all the way until October before it is spoiled, depriving us of both the satisfaction and the surprise. Fingers crossed, however, that this is one secret the Internet manages to keep.
