The Walking Dead: Executive Producer Says Rick's Reign Is Finished

Poor, Rick. Let's be honest: the guy is having a rough time lately. The lead of The Walking Dead had a very bad evening last Sunday when the hit drama returned for its seventh season. Fans everywhere watched as two of Rick's closest friends were brutally murdered in front of him. And, later in the premiere, the shaken man almost had to cut off his son's hand. By the end of the episode, Rick was looking more vulnerable than ever before, and the show's executive producer says the character no longer be able to lead following the ordeal.

Gale Anne Hurd told Entertainment Tonight, "We are no longer in the world of the Ricktatorship."

"We've always seen Rick making the choices as to whether he wants to leave or not and what the premiere proved is that it's Negan's world that they're living in now. That was the brutal reckoning that made it very clear to Rick that things had changed completely…. It is very much about Rick and the choices that he has made and has to accept and to realize and where he is in this new world order."

So far, Rick has stood as the de facto leader throughout The Walking Dead. While rival factions and communities have tried to penetrate his posse before, Rick has kept a tight hold over his comrades during the past six seasons. However, that all changed on Sunday when Rick and his group were turned upside down.

If you've seen the Season 7 premiere, then you know how Negan managed to demoralize Rick even after he killed Glenn and Abraham. ComicBook.com's Kofi Outlaw wrote up a piece which explains how the torture Rick endured injured him more than Negan's kills.

"Negan took the lives of Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Seven Yeun) in quite brutal fashion, bashing their respective skulls in. However, Negan wasn't done there: He filled the rest of the premiere's runtime with some serious mind-f*ck tortures in order to break Rick's will," Outlaw stressed.

Not only did the leader of the Saviors send Rick out an apparently suicide survival excursion, but then he even tried to make Rick cut off Carl's arm. The villain threatened to execute the rest of his comrades if Rick resisted, and it was only when Rick was about to amputate his son's arm that Negan stopped the man.

Some fans might wonder why Negan just didn't get on with it and kill Rick to begin with. If he is so worried about Rick and his leadership skills, then why not destroy the threat before it targets you? Jeffrey Dean Morgan addressed that question to ease fans' burning curiosity.

"Maybe the smart thing would have been to kill Rick," Morgan said. "Cut the head off the snake. But I think Negan is thinking a couple steps ahead here, and he's like, 'Well wait, if I can break this guy and have him working for me, I stand to gain a hell of a lot more.'" He adds, "As horrible as the deaths of two survivors, that moment of possibility of cutting off Carl's arm I think is the emotional low point of the show. I think it all led to that."

The Walking Dead airs Sunday night's @9/8c on AMC.

[H/T] Entertainment Tonight