The Walking Dead Producer Explains Why Melissa McBride Won’t Be At Comic-Con Panel

First thing first: No, we won’t be hearing who Negan’s victim during The Walking Dead‘s San Diego Comic Con panel. The show’s executive producer Gale Anne Hurd confirmed the news with Deadline in an interview where she discussed The Walking Dead, Aliens, Fear The Walking Dead, and Falling Water. And, more importantly, she reveals why one of The Walking Dead‘s major cast members won’t be appearing at SDCC this year.

When Hurd was asked why Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier) wouldn’t be onstage for The Walking Dead‘s Hall H panel, the producer explained, “The big thing really is our cast is so large right now that we couldn’t bring everyone. There’s a limitation at Comic-Con as to how many people can be onstage. So, we would love to have brought everyone, but we couldn’t.”

Of course, there have been and will still be fans who point to McBride’s absence as proof of the character’s possible demise. With fans still fiercely debating who’ll be killed by Negan next season, conspiracy theorists will use any and all evidence they can to support their beliefs. However, The Walking Dead team expected that kind of reaction.

In fact, Hurd said, “I think they read everything into the tea leaves at this point. There have been some very amusing theories based on a lot of sort of speculation based on who’s been in Georgia and who hasn’t…Not everyone is in every episode. The truth is the Hall H panel is for the most part the people who were where we left them in the last shot of Season 6, that’s sort of the lineup.”

As The Walking Dead has historically deviated somewhat from Robert Kirkman’s comics, fans are uncertain whether Negan’s deadly encounter with Rick’s group will be canon-compliant or not. Still, this hasn’t stopped fans from pouring over the source material in hopes of finding some ever elusive spoilers. Things were only made worse for fans when The Walking Dead released different photos featuring various characters sitting at the losing end of Negan’s bat, Lucille.

Fans can expect to get some information about the show’s upcoming seventh season as The Walking Dead is set to release the its season trailer along with a premiere date at SDCC. Hurd, a comic-con veteran, is excited to see what fans have to say about the show, telling Deadline that, ” I’m sure we’ll be hearing from people, very specifically, what they loved and what they didn’t about Season 6, but that’s the great thing about Comic-Con — it’s up close and personal.”