What Does The Walking Dead Midseason 6 Premiere Trailer Mean?

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for the comic book series, which may or may not [...]

TWD-MS6-Preview

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for the comic book series, which may or may not happen on the TV series.

Late last night, AMC snuck out the first preview for the second half of The Walking Dead's sixth season. While the 30 second spot wasn't exactly loaded with new footage, the contents of it are still fairly significant and indicative of things to come.

First of all: Negan. The 'prologue' shown after the midseason finale offered viewers the first mention of Negan. Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham seem to be at the mercy of a small group of Negan's Saviors, who are demanding they hand over everything they've got.

This was already shown in the prologue, so why reiterate in the preview if Negan is not going to be a major part of the upcoming eight episodes? While many of us expect Negan's arrival to be held until the season six finale, it was only a couple of issues in the comics between Negan's first mention and his introduction.

With the casting announcment of Jeffrey Dean Morgan for the role of Negan, it's possible he'll be more of a threat in season six than any of us suspected, though my chat with Ross Marquand (Aaron) earlier this year hints to Negan's infamous arrival coming in 6x16. Marquand dubbed the finale as the most "emotionally wrought," script he has ever read and he Andrew Lincoln (Rick) agree, it is the "craziest thing ever." Sounds like Negan.

Aside from Negan, the preview also showed Rick swinging his hatchet much like he does at this point in the comics. He's not only swinging his hatchet at zombies. Though we can't tell in the preview, the foreshadowing of Rick slicing Jessie's hand off to free Carl from her grasp as she is devoured by zombies is certainly there.

We can't say for sure, as The Walking Dead tends to deviate from its comic book source material quite often, but it looks like Jessie is all set to become zombie chow.

Glenn and Maggie also seem to be closer together with Maggie shrieking out his name from the post atop which she is trapped. Glenn and Enid may very well be coming to her rescue as he is seen gunning down walkers inside the walls. Glenn is finally back inside the walls!!

Finally, the last big takeaway here doesn't come from a scene, but a title. "THE NEW WORLD" is printed between a couple of shots. In the comics, a story arc titled "A Larger World" introduced Rick and the group to other communities and dozens of new characters prior to Negan's arrival. When The Hunter's came into play, AMC ran previews with titles reading, "Hunt or be Hunted," so, surely, this is a reference to the Larger World storyline to come.

The Walking Dead returns Sunday, February 14, 2016 on AMC.

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