‘The Walking Dead’ season 7: Robert Kirkman hypes future after polarizing finale

Sure, we know that AMC has moved on to covering “Fear the Walking Dead” after the flagship show ended its own run earlier this spring, but we still think most zombie fanatics have Negan from “The Walking Dead” proper on their mind over Victor Strand and the crew of the Abigail … and why wouldn’t they? The arrival of Negan and his deadly moment with Lucille is a moment that comic fans had been waiting for ever since the early days of the show.

Comic creator Robert Kirkman actually addressed the split reactions in a letter within the latest issue of the comic (specifically, #154); here’s just a small sample of what he had to say:

“Some people love it. Some people are indifferent. Some people HATE it … We weren’t trying to game the audience, we weren’t trying to drive you crazy, we certainly weren’t trying to FORCE you to come back for season 7… we hope you were planning on doing that and still plan on doing that.

“We did want you to talk. And talk you are.”

Kirkman also said to think of the season 6 finale and the season 7 premiere almost as a two-parter, and cited “Star Trek: The Next Generation” as a great example of a show that really used this whole cliffhanger / premiere structure to its benefit.

To us, we don’t really think that the issue with “The Walking Dead” at present is that it ended on a cliffhanger. Instead, we think it has a little bit more to do with the fact that this cliffhanger was based around a scene that was expected to play out in its entirely in the finale. It was that fans expected to get a full picture of who Negan killed, and didn’t. Now, you’ve gotta wait until October for more.

Rest assured that we will have some more news on “The Walking Dead” as it comes out over at the link here, so stay tuned! Also, sign up over at this link to get some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: AMC.)