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Strength in numbers is the key to survival
in
TheWalking Dead: Season 7
.
Words
Adam Colby
the terrible fallout from his pre-emptive
strike against the Saviours has changed
everything.
"Last season was Rick building and building
in confidence, and a very important discovery
that community was the key to everything," says
Gimple. "The first half of season seven [is] very
much about these characters and the audience
finding their way forward from an incredible
trauma."
With Rick now a broken man, he is left
believing that the only way forward is compliance.
"It begins with a man being obedient and going
out of his way and risking his life for Negan in
order to preserve life in Alexandria," says Andrew
Lincoln. "But throughout there are successions
of moments that change his mind, and make him
realise that this is an untenable situation."
And of course Negan and Lucille are never
too far away. "What we're building toward is Rick
trying to re-emerge and find
himself again," adds Jeffrey
Dean Morgan, "and Negan
is still there with a big
smile on his face, waiting.
So we're getting to a
breaking point."
I
n the sixth season of
The Walking Dead
, Rick
Grimes is told by a character named Jesus that
his world is about to get a whole lot bigger.
And following the brutal confrontation with
Negan and his barbed baseball bat Lucille in the
punishing cliffhanger, Rick and the survivors of his
group are going to need all the help they can get
if they are to beat the Saviours.
"The characters that survive are going to see
a much larger world than they found at Hilltop,"
promises executive producer Scott M. Gimple in
AMC's official featurette.
The despotic Saviours control a number of
communities that represent potential allies
to Rick and Alexandria. First and foremost is
The Kingdom, ruled by the flamboyant and
dreadlocked King Ezekiel, whose pet tiger adds
to his theatrical mien. Then there is the female
society of Oceanside, and of course Jesus and
Gregory at Hilltop.
"What excites me about the first half of
season seven is how [the world] got bigger,"
adds Gimple. "It wasn't just the discovery of new
places and groups but how they were living with,
around, or away from the Saviours."
Rick's past victories over the walkers and the
Wolves had made him hubristic, and
BRAVE
NEW WORLD
THE ROAD
SO FAR...
Previously on AMC's
The Walking Dead ...
jbhifi.com.au014
SEPTEMBER
2017
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FEATURE
SEASON 1
Rick Grimes
awakens from
a coma. Meets
Morgan. Finds
his family and
other survivors. The group head for
the CDC in search of answers.
SEASON 2
The group
seek refuge at
Hershel's farm.
Enter Maggie.
Walkers in the
barn. Shane loses it. Rick warns
"this isn't a democracy anymore."
SEASON 3
The group seek
refuge in a
prison. Enter
the Governor.
Zombie heads in
fishtanks. Glenn proposes to Maggie.
The Governor storms the prison.
SEASON 4
A virus spreads
through the
prison. Carol
confesses.
The Governor
returns. Walkers overrun the prison.
The group reach Terminus.
SEASON 5
Terminus is
a bad place.
Enter Father
Gabriel. Beth
wakes up in
hospital. Corrupt cops. Invite to
Alexandria. "Wolves not far."
SEASON 6
Wolves attack
Alexandria.
Wandering in
the woods.
Jesus and
Hilltop. Pre-emptive strike on the
Saviours. Carol departs. Enter Negan.
P
ollyanna McIntosh joins the cast of
The Walking Dead
in
season seven as Jadis, the leader of a strange junkyard
community that looks like it's stepped straight out of a Mad Max
movie. This society of scavengers could prove to be a valuable ally
for Rick and his group in the looming war with the Saviours. They even
have a walker gladiator kitted out in some fearsome looking trash armour!
Horror fans will recognise McIntosh from her roles in
The Woman
(2011) and
Let Us Prey
(2014), and she makes a welcome – and enigmatic – addition to TWD. In an interview with
Variety
, McIntosh had this to say about the nature of her character: “I think everybody has
to be menacing at this point. It’s a dangerous world. We’re keeping our cards close to
our chest, and I as an actor on the show have to keep my cards very close to my chest
about where this can go. I definitely don’t see myself, as Jadis, as a villain at all. I’m
a survivor and a leader, and I’ve taken pretty good care of this group. And I think she’s done a
pretty good job when you see the size of it.”
JADIS &THE JUNKERS
•
The Walking
Dead:
Season 7
is out Sept 27
Credit: Gene Page/AMC