Andrew Lincoln On The Walking Dead Cliffhanger, Season 7, And More

The sixth season of The Walking Dead has come and gone all too quickly.

Nearly eight months ago, we found Rick Grimes guiding Alexandria on a quest to lead a massive horde of walkers away from their community. The plan backfired and lives were lost. Then, the Wolves attacked. Carol and Morgan dispatched them but even more lives were lost in the defense. Things only got worse when the walls of Alexandria fell and the Safe-Zone was completely over run with walkers and the remaining Andersons fell victim to the apocalypse.

That’s only the first half of the season.

Rick’s group later found themselves at the beginning of war in a world much larger than they suspected. The addition of the Hilltop community lead our Alexandrians on a search for the menacing Negan. However, finding him and his Saviors would prove more terrifying and threatening than anyone would have thought.

To cap the sixth season, the group was lined up in front of Negan as he used his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire to bash someone’s skull. Who? We don’t know. But Andrew Lincoln, who gave a genuinely heartbreaking and terrifying performance in Last Day on Earth, has some perspective which the fans may not.

This week, ComicBook.com had the chance to talk with Lincoln, the man who breathes life into Rick Grimes on AMC’s The Walking Dead. He spilled some thoughts and insider info on the closing moments of season six and even teased some of what we can expect when season seven rolls around.

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CB: I like to start with a question from Twitter, and this time, it comes from Ian Moore.

AL: It’s so difficult to answer that question until you’ve played the scene out. The fan who wrote this identified one of the great characteristics of Rick. His ability to change and come back and bounce back from trauma and terrible situations but this is… Greg Nicotero, who directed the episode, wanted to sort of mark a man who is having everything taken away from him. He’s cut down. Everything he’s worked for, everything he’s stood for, everything he’s believed in and killed for is coming crashing around his person. I wanted to see him lost like he’s never been lost before. Humbled like never before. In short: I don’t know. That’s going to be one of the most exciting story arcs that we’re going to explore this next season. How does he rebuild, if indeed I’m not the guy that the bat has hit?

Everybody is raving about your performance, myself included, especially in those last ten minutes. How did you bring yourself to perform with such ferocity and genuine terror?

The great thing about that scene is after we shot it, I think everybody had such a palpable amount of focus and intention. From everybody. We had gone to a different place. A different zone. It was thrilling. It reminded me, it felt like we were back in season one with that ensemble attitude and commitment to the story and telling it and doing justice to the story in motion. And then, of course, you’ve got the wonderful Jeffrey Dean Morgan who killed it. He was astonishing.

Do you or the other cast members know who it was that got killed?

We kind of made a pact with each other, just because personally and professionally one of us is going. These people are lovely, dear friends, including myself, one of us is gonna get it. We haven’t shot the scene yet fully. We all just made a pact not to discuss it. It’s upsetting. It’s too precious. There are certain things that become sacred on set and I’m afraid, I’m one of these people going, “I can’t talk about it.” Every time we’ve lost somebody on the show they’ve been instrumental in story telling. It’s the same thing. We lock up shop. We linked arms, got our knees, and said, “You know what? Let’s not discuss this. It’s painful. No apologies.”

Who, of all of the eligible victims, would Rick be most devastated about losing?

His son. His son.

What is it that Rick is realizing as he is finally dropping down to his knees for Negan?

I don’t really know. I try to get myself into a place that is open to suggestion. Also, like I’ve said before, we’re very keen to mark this dread and building dread. That’s what it felt like. It was a claustrophobic tightening of the noose in that whole episode. I think that it’s final to acquiesce. It’s all in the handling of the crown. It’s everything. Everything that he striven for is crashing around him in that moment and he realizes he has lost. There is no other way. They’re completely out-manned, outgunned, and out of their own debt. The world has become a far deeper, darker and bigger place than he had ever imagined.

Fortunately, we have a very impressive attitude with everybody around the camera and in front of the camera that we have the same care and devotion to coming into work.

Very impressive job all around.

Thank you. It’s because I want to do right for the fans. I want all of those scenes, The Walking Dead scenes, to try and make it as true and as believable as we possibly can.

The show reinvents itself every eight episode with new themes, obstacles and threats. What would you say those will be for season 7?

I don’t know yet. I do know Mr. Gimple is keeping his cards very close to his chest. We’ve spoken about it and he’s given me a rough sketch. It’s gonna be big. It’s big. I’m really, really excited about what’s happening. Playing this character for the last six years has been about calibrating what it is to be a leader. You saw in the back eight there’s a pride in effect that influences the leadership which I think has come to haunt him now. How that plays out psychologically, emotionally, and how he feels if he makes it through this scene, if he’s not the one that gets the bat, will be very exciting to play.

A lot of fans have taken to Twitter and blogs and other places to voice their frustrations with being left hanging by the season finale’s cliffhanger. Scott Gimple has said that it only adds pressure to make a great episode 701. What do you have to say to those people?

I think people are well within their limits to feel whatever they feel. That’s why people watch drama because they want to feel things. That reaction is a compliment in itself, that they’re feeling things, that they’re angry about it and they’re taking it upon themselves to write about it because people are devoted to the show and they want to go on this ride. I will say, not in defense because I don’t necessarily think it needs to be defended because I think it’s a brilliant way to finish a season in this manner, in the way it was shot, with the way Greg [Nicotero] did it… I thought it was extraordinary.

It was like an assault on the audience almost, the way that we go to their POV. It’s an incredibly dynamic way to do it. I do think that it’s a courageous thing that Scott’s chosen to do. I will say to the fans that leaving it open ended in this way means that we have to return to the season in the opening episode with a terrible, emotionally impactful episode, which is not conventional storytelling. Conventional storytelling is, ‘Welcome back, we’re here.’ Escape from Terminus being one. Or Alexandria, you know, a big action packed call to arms.. He’s not chosen to do that. He has chosen to do something much more challenging because it’s gonna be… They’re gonna start and one of us is gonna go. I think that was incredibly daring story telling, not that it needs to be defended, and equally, everybody has their right to feel exactly what they want to feel about our cliffhanger.