If you believe what the cast and crew of The Walking Dead are saying, there’s going to be a lot of death and destruction featured in the season premiere of season seven. We know based on what we saw in the season six finale that at least one member of Rick’s band of survivors gets their heads bashed in by Negan. But Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan recently revealed that more than one person is going to die in the next episode. And now The Walking Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero is implying even more carnage will be wrought.
“I think it’s safe to say that the axe could play a prominent part in the episode,” Nicotero told ComicBook.com when asked if there was a possibility of Rick Grimes losing his hand on the show like he did in the comics. In a preview clip from The Walking Dead that played at New York Comic Con, Negan takes Rick’s hatchet and drags him into an RV. Given how well versed The Walking Dead fans are with the comics and how the show often puts new spins on comic happenings, we know what’s being implied here.
If Rick ends up losing his hand, it’ll actually make the actor that plays him very happy. Andrew Lincoln told ComicBook.com in a separate interview that he’d actually campaigned to have his character maimed, but was overruled because of how difficult it would be for the special effects department to hide Lincoln’s hand in all future scenes. So the question is, have the SFX people cooked up a way to deal with the logistics of a main character missing his limb? Or is all this teasing just another head game from The Walking Dead to keep us guessing as to what will happen next?
We’ll find out soon enough as The Walking Dead finally returns this Sunday October 23rd.