Exclusive: Norman Reedus On Daryl’s Guilt After The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere

Major spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere follow.

The Walking Dead‘s Season 7 premiere shocked audiences, as Scott Gimple promised it would, by finally revealing Negan’s vengeance. The new villain who will be wreaking havoc on Alexandria made his presence known by taking out notone, but two main characters.

First, the vicious game of eeny-meeny-miny-moe landed Lucille on Abraham’s skull and audiences breathed a sigh of relief for Glenn. Audiences widely expected the former pizza boy to be the victim based on the infamous events of issue #100. However, their relief was short-lived as Daryl came to a fellow Alexandrian’s defense.

Daryl’s actions prompted Negan to “shut that s— down” just like he said he would. Rather than kill Daryl, though, he bashed Glenn’s skull in true-to-the-comics, horrifcally brutal fashion.

Daryl actor Norman Reedus caught up with ComicBook.com for an exclusive interview regarding the weight on Daryl’s shoulders after his actions triggered Glenn’s death.

“I think it weighs heavily on him,” Reedus said. “I don’t know that anybody in that group blames him for anything, but he blames himself more than anything. It really brings him down to a certain level where whatever shitty thing is thrown at him, he is just going to take it.”

For Daryl, who is now a prisoner of war, the events aren’t being taken any sort of lightly.

“He goes very, very dark,” Reedus said. “He does certain things that he can’t go back from. He goes to a very, very dark, dark place. It’s a combination of hatred. It’s a combination of self-loathing. It’s different from when he first started on the show. He has a big chip on his shoulder. He thought people wouldn’t like him. He didn’t give a shit. He hates you, too. It turns now into he kind of hates himself. He hates the world that we’re in, and he doesn’t lose the fight in him, but he definitely no longer sees anything good in the world, that’s for sure.”

There’s also the relationship between Rick and Daryl. During The Walking Dead retrospective special, The Journey So Far, Reedus described Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes “becomes the brother that Merle couldn’t have been.” Certainly, Daryl’s acting out might effect Rick’s view of the last standing Dixon brother.

[TWD Fallout: Will Rick Kill Negan? | Where are Carol and Morgan? | Episode 2 Preview | Where is Daryl? | Reedus discusses Daryl’s guilt | Is Daryl a POW? | Who is Ezekial? ]

“The bond between Rick and Daryl…As the family breaks apart and loses family members and stuff like that, the bond just gets closer with the people that are still there,” Reedus said. “That bond doesn’t go anywhere, but through a series of events this season, the dynamics change a bit. That whole group is in such a broken place right now. The bond is still there, but I don’t know if it will. It’s actually broken quite a bit.”

The Walking Dead returns for its seventh season on October 23 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.