‘The Walking Dead’ Stars Promise A ‘Satisfying’ Season 7 Finale, But What Does That Look Like?

The cast of The Walking Dead was miserable in the first half of season seven. Andrew Lincoln called it “painful,” while Norman Reedus acknowledged that although he knows “the show evolves and all of that stuff, but man, that first half was rough.” He even told showrunner Scott Gimple, “Man, this sucks. I hate this.” Both actors have changed their tune in the second half, though.

There’s been a lot more cathartic smiling, both on- and off-screen, and Rick is finally ready to fight back against the Saviors, with some help from Alexandria, the Kingdom, the Hilltop, and hopefully the Junkyard Gang. No wonder Lincoln sounds so happy when discussing the season finale.

“Wait till [episode] 16. I promise you, there is one beat in 16,” he previously said, “I dropped my script and started punching the air and did a little jig.” Lincoln recently added, “There’s a palpable sense of energy and excitement in that final episode. I think that the crew felt it, this sort of brilliancy. And it was weird because it was the end of a long season and yet everybody was sort of champing at the bit to keep going. I’ve never felt that before in the show… It was a really unique situation and everybody felt it. So I think if we get it right, it will be an incredibly satisfying ending to season seven.”

Reedus mocked Lincoln’s enthusiasm (“I think he likes to do little jigs here and there”) before admitting, “I did the same thing when I read that one.” He continued, “It’s nice to finally let a window open up in this room and let some of this air out of here, and it’s nice to get some freedom and some dirt underneath your feet and start running towards killing this guy.” The “guy” is, of course, Negan, who we already know will be around for season eight, if not longer. So if he doesn’t die, what does a happy Walking Dead finale look like?

“It’s completely different than all the other ones,” Reedus said. “It has similar elements, but it’s completely different, and, you know, there might be a little William Wallace [from Braveheart] in it.” That makes it sound like there will swords instead of baseball bats, thousands of screaming good guys running towards screaming bad guys in an open field, and Reedus in a kilt. I can think of a few million Daryl Dixon fans who would enjoy that.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

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