The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere Redefines Grief

No one is expecting to smile when The Walking Dead returns for its seventh season in October. When the show left viewers hanging in the spring, wondering who was being brutally killed at the hands of Negan, we knew the opening moments of the next season would have to cap off those terrifying moments.

However, when The Walking Dead returns this fall, it will be about much more than who died. The dynamic of the series will shift and audiences and characters will both be reeling from a tragic, gamechanging death.

"Listen, shooting that first episode, the Season 7 premiere, was without a doubt the most emotionally grueling and draining nine days," The Walking Dead's executive producer and Season 7 premiere director Greg Nicotero explains. "There was nothing fun about it. It was rough, really rough. As far as the way that I looked at it, it was reducing these people at the end of [Season 6] to the absolute lowest point that you can ever imagine them. They're all defeated, they've lost. We've never seen Rick Grimes scared in six years. There has never been fear on his face, but we end Season 6… Rick is so scared that he is helpless. These are two things that you never see in your hero. Imagine a hero that's scared and helpless. Where do you go from there?"

"The season premiere really redefines grief," Nicotero goes on. "It redefines pain, and emotion, and if you think watching the finale that you are already at rock bottom with these people, you've got a lot further to go. This season's intense. There's not really a lot of let up. The show continues to get darker, and that's something that we had always planned from day one, is that we want the show to be dark, and we want the show to be different. With the introduction of Negan, it gives us the perfect palate and the perfect opportunity to explore something that we've never explored before. The world is a much, much bigger place. You have a guy like Rick who ends Season 6 with, 'Oh yeah, if they want to deal, you just tell them to come talk to me…' For him to be in the position that he's left in, on his knees… it's rough."

The Walking Dead will return for its seventh season October 23 at 9 PM ET on AMC. For complete coverage, insider info, and more all season long, be sure to follow me on Twitter @BrandonDavisBD and check out The Walking Dead on ComicBook.com on Facebook.

(via Yahoo)