Spoilers for The Walking Dead are below.
Whether you loved it or you hated it – and loads of people hated it – The Walking Dead chose to end Season 6 with a bang, a whimper and a big old cliffhanger. But viewers shouldn’t feel like they’re the only ones that are in the dark about who Negan killed. According to Andrew Lincoln, no one in the central cast knows either, and they’re all determined to keep it that way.
We made a pact because it was such an intense two days [filming Negan's scene] when we shot it to keep our heads down and let it play out as it was intended. I have theories and thoughts but I'm not going to go on record and tell them quite yet! Maybe sometime midseason next year! All I know is we haven't fully shot the scene yet and I'll only know when the scene is completed how Rick feels. One of us is going to get it and that's going to be terrible personally and professionally. We made a deal when we got down on our knees that we wouldn't talk about it.
Actors on The Walking Dead often don’t know everything about every scene they’re in, and quite a few choose to avoid the comic book source material so that they can remain as uninformed and surprised as possible. But this is quite possibly the biggest scene in the comics, and although the cliffhanger aspect watered down the impact, it’s also bound to end up being one of the most important scenes in the TV show as well. The curiosity would likely make my head explode if I was a part of this cast, but apparently they’re all right as rain with keeping the reveal at bay until they’re back in it.
Really, it’s hard to knock the decision to steer clear of such spoilers. I can’t imagine how many times these guys are going to be asked about who the victim is in the months between now and viewers seeing the gruesome scene in its entirety in the Season 7 premiere. Remaining clueless and publicly putting it out there that they’re remaining clueless is pretty genius. Even if Andrew Lincoln and everyone else actually did know who the victim was, it’d still be a smart move to deny it in interviews.
Though Lincoln might not be aware of who got killed, he told THR that he’s pretty sure Rick is going to be feeling a lot of guilt over it, since he’s the one who mistakenly thought The Saviors weren’t a big enough group to get such a monumental form of revenge like this. I mean, had he sat down and taken some time to consider his options along with the risk/reward stats for each, then it wouldn’t have been Rick Grimes at all.
The Walking Dead won’t return to AMC until October, although we’ll likely get to hear Andrew Lincoln talking about a lot of past and future moments before that. To soothe your walker woes, you’ll be able to watch Season 2 of Fear the Walking Dead when it premieres on Sunday, April 10. And for everything else premiering in the next few months, check out our summer TV schedule.
