The Walking Dead returns for the second half of its seventh season on February 12th, and AMC wants you to know all about it. After a month or so of radio silence from the show, the marketing has picked up again and now, after receiving a batch of new stills from the upcoming midseason premiere, we’ve got a brief, yet tantalizing promo that teases what’s to come.
Admittedly, this is more or less the same one we got back in December, but it does reveal just a sliver of new footage. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that right near the start, there’s a shot of Tara, Rick, Carl etc. visiting with Ezekiel that wasn’t seen before, while halfway through, you can spot Dwight running down a hallway. It’s nothing to stop the presses, of course, but it should please fans who are itching for the show to return.
Speaking to EW to promote season 7.5, or 7B as some are calling it, Andrew Lincoln addressed the complaints that have been lodged at The Walking Dead lately, with many viewers feeling that it’s become too brutal and violent. When asked how he felt about that, the actor said:
“I mean, look, that’s the whole point of when you create something. It opens the discussion, doesn’t it? And ultimately you have your own individual reaction, whatever it may be. And you know, obviously, you don’t want it to be negative, but if you’re endeavoring to make something different and unique and challenging — and hopefully dangerous and new — sometimes it might provoke different reactions from people. And I stand by everybody telling this story, particularly the writers and everybody directing it. I think it’s a very brave, bold, and also challenging story that we’re attempting.
As I said before, people are absolutely entitled to feeling exactly what they want to feel about the show, and it’s interesting the way that people view it differently now. And I know people want to watch more than one episode a week at a time just because it’s kind of compulsive, the storytelling, and they want to know what happens next. And I think sometimes having to wait is a good thing because you get to recap on other things and view it in a different way.”
Further on in the interview, he touched on how the show has been slowly building up to the war between Rick and Negan, with the aim being to have people really feel like they want justice for what happened by the time the conflict goes down.
“Rather than just have a very cool exciting buildup to war between between Negan and Rick, (showrunner Scott Gimple)Â wanted people to want more than that. To really feel that they wanted justice, and then to also acknowledge the cost of what had happened and why they were willing to risk it all again while realizing that they were putting many, many, many lives back in the firing line.
I think he really wanted it to feel like the audience, rather than just baying for blood, wanted justice for what had happened. And that, for me, was quite a helpful way of understanding why it had to be so immersive and so painful — certainly for all of us on set and acting in it, but also, I think, for the audience.”
Even if you’re one of the many, many viewers who feels that season 7 has gotten off to a rather lacklustre start, we’d still advise you tune in for the next episode before throwing in the towel. This is a show that’s known for its ups and downs, and if the first several outings this year have been slow and stretched out a bit too much, then rest assured that season 7.5 is going to pick things up significantly.
Everything has been building to this “all-out” war between Rick and Negan and from what we’ve been hearing, it’s going to culminate in an explosive conclusion. Blood will be spilled, violence will ensue and not everyone will make it out alive – and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on February 12th.
