Fans of The Walking Dead anticipated the show’s Season 6 finale with a sense of excitement and dread, as the arrival of comics character Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) almost certainly heralded the death of a major character. However, the show’s producers had different plans, as the finale ended on a cliffhanger that simultaneously revealed that someone died, without telling the audience who was on the end of that bat. It was…frustrating, to say the least, and a bit of a cheap way to keep audiences on their toes until Season 7 (although not everyone was displeased).
However, fans won’t have to wait long to find out who died, as the Season 7 premiere will pick up exactly where the Season 6 finale left off, revealing who’s biting the bullet. But while filming on The Walking Dead Season 7 is underway in Atlanta, AMC is going to great lengths to keep the victim’s identify under wraps until the episode airs. How are they doing this? By filming multiple death scenes, of course.
Per THR, each of the 11 cast members has filmed a death scene for the Season 7 premiere, and the show’s producers and director will work with the editors to decide which one will in fact die during post-production. This works two-fold: it prevents paparazzi or on-set insiders to reveal who shot the death scene—they all did!—and it also allows the show’s producers and writers to decide to have a different character bit the bullet, if they so choose.
It’s certainly smart to shoot a death scene for every character, especially since the advent of drones has made location shooting nearly impossible to keep entirely under wraps, but I do certainly hope that when they shot said scenes, the producers knew full well who they actually intend to kill off rather than waiting until they get a look at the footage to decide. Indeed, as the story for at least the first few episodes had to have been broken before Season 7, Episode 1 began production, I’d be mighty surprised if they shot these scenes without knowing who was really getting the ax.
What do you think, folks? Are you still angry about that cliffhanger? Who do you think dies? Do you want to see a supercut of all 11 death scenes on the eventual Blu-ray? Vote in our poll and sound off in the comments below.
