Want to go into The Walking Dead without any idea of what is to come when it returns this Sunday? To stay spoiler-free, we suggest bailing on this article right now.
The Walking Dead is going to have a lot of tricks up its sleeve when it returns to AMC this weekend. We already know there are going to be a hell of a lot more walkers than usual and that The Walking Dead even plans to use a time jump at some point. We also know that the finale is going to be devastating, so devastating in fact that it kept Andrew Lincoln up at night. The whole process of receiving the script and knowing what was to come was such a nightmare that he was actually late for work. You can catch the whole story, straight from the horse’s mouth, below.
I felt sick to my stomach when I read the script. It was the first day in the whole six years of working on The Walking Dead that I was late for work because I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was so angry and frustrated and I felt sick. And that was just after reading it.
Okay, so if just reading the script was hellish, actually filming the Season 6 finale was probably not a walk in the park, either. Luckily, other Walking Dead lead Lauren Cohan really went out of her way to explain exactly how arduous shooting the episode was, telling EW it was “the hardest.”
The word ‘finale’ gives me a physical reaction because it’s the hardest day on set that I’ve ever had in my life. I never even imagined that as an actor you could have that experience. It’s one of the most raw experiences that I think any of us have ever had. Andy talks about being late to work; I didn’t want to go to work that day. It took a really, really long time for everybody to feel okay again after the finale, let’s put it that way.
Despite the fact that The Walking Dead doesn’t return until Valentine’s Day, the show finished filming some time ago, so the cast members are already well aware of where Season 6 is heading. Mostly, everyone has been pretty tight-lipped about what this will entail, although time hops and the appearance of Negan have been the talk of the town ever since AMC aired an extra clip for the series during an episode of Into The Badlands. More on Negan here. More recently, we learned a big spoiler from the comics may be happening some time in the latter half of Season 6, but that moment doesn't seem as if it would be big enough to keep Andrew Lincoln awake at night.
With that in mind, expect The Walking Dead to go out with bangs, crunches and other violent-sounding adjectives at the end of the TV season. The show's already been renewed for Season 7, so somebody is going to have to survive, but those individuals were obviously kept awake at night in the process.
You can catch new episodes of The Walking Dead starting on Sunday, February 14 at 9 p.m. ET. In addition, you can see when your other favorites are returning with our midseason TV premiere schedule.
