(Spoilers ahead.)
When The Walking Dead returns on February 14, the midseason premiere may become known as a Valentine’s Day Massacre. Robert Kirkman has already warned that “many people die” in the premiere, and he’s not kidding.
Do you like this character?
Or this one?
In fact, of the people in this room who aren’t already dead, most of the Alexandrians pictured probably will be dead after the midseason premiere.
Why? Well, it’s not just because there was a horde of zombies invading Alexandria when we left off with the midseason finale. The redshirt purge will be out of complete necessity.
We already know that the series’ Walter White, Negan, has been cast. We also know that Dwight, a major member of the Hilltop Colony, will return. We have also received confirmation now that Gregory, the leader of the Hilltop Colony, will be played by none other than 24 and Nikita star Xander Berkeley.
We also know that one of Negan’s Savior henchman has been cast with a Better Call Saul henchman (Grand Theft Auto V‘s Trevor). There are also these guys, members of Negan’s crew.
In other words, The Walking Dead will be adding Negan, The Saviors, and a new set of major characters, minor characters, and redshirts in the Hilltop Colony in the next half season, which means that in order to accommodate a cast that is already bursting at the seams with actors, the series is going to have to purge a lot of characters, mostly Alexandrian redshirts, though, we can expect to also see a number of minor and major-minor characters die in the midseason finale, as well.
It’s not the first redshirt purge on The Walking Dead, of course. Remember all of those Woodbury citizens who died in the prison fire? Or later on the bus outside of the prison? Or the redshirts who died on Hershel’s farm? It’s basically become a fact of The Walking Dead: Every once in a while, the series needs to purge itself of its glorified extras and start again. The question in the midseason finale will be: How many of those dead characters will be characters we will miss?
