The Walking Dead Showrunner Expounds on The Gravity of Season Premiere Death

Of the many deaths in The Walking Dead, one might say that most of the mainstays have died very unexpectedly. From Beth's almost waste of a death to Hershel's brutal execution via The Governor, the killings usually become water cooler talk (or comment rage) the next day.

AMC and the rest of The Walking Dead's cast and crew have opted for a different treatment this time. For months on end, we were basically tortured with the knowledge of a death of someone we don't really know who.

And it's supposed to be the death of the (crossover) season, too. Now showrunner Scott M. Gimple shed some insights on what exactly makes this death different, apart from the unbelievably long wait we needed to see its completion.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gimple hinted that what makes this death different is the fact that it was done on purpose.

"Negan said in the finale that this is him showing them what the consequences are if they won't do what he says. Not only do they have this terrible loss, but they also lose their autonomy. They're under someone's thumb now, in every way. And the consequences of that, of trying to defy him, are laid out in front of them in just the most horrible way."

The main argument here is the loss of power. The purposefulness of the death compounds this, because unlike a Walker attack or a random shot like Beth's, the death is mainly in the hands of the group. It's about taking away the power that they enjoyed for the last season in a very unforgettable way.

More than what happens within the group, Gimple also teased that the other communities involved, such as the Hilltop, can see some sort of friction.

"Ultimately, the Hilltop has new information, too. They didn't know there were more Saviors. They thought that that outpost was the Saviors… So there's a bit of a panic and it definitely makes the relationship between the two communities suddenly very different."

This definitely makes it interesting, and may help deliver the promise of expanding the world in terms of the different community dynamics as well.

The Walking Dead will be back in AMC on Oct. 23.

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