The sixth season finale of The Walking Dead may have made a mistake by dragging out the murder of one of its lead characters, but AMC is milking the suspense for all that’s it’s worth. At San Diego Comic-Con, the network brought almost all of Negan’s potential victims to keep fans from guessing which hero fell to his barbwire bat. And then to twist the knife a little more, the network unveiled the first trailer for the seventh season.
Aside from the opening montage, familiar faces are in short supply in this trailer. Rick, Carl, Michonne, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, Rosita, Sasha, Aaron, Eugene, and Abraham all get emotional callbacks as Negan picks his victim. But from there, it’s pretty heavy rotation of Negan and his Saviors ruling the other survivors with brutal tactics.
But there is some hope, as Morgan and Carol have entered The Kingdom, the stronghold of a man calling himself Ezekiel. He’s portrayed by Khary Payton, and he’s accompanied by Ezekiel’s most loyal companion: Shiva the tiger!
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Admittedly, Shiva is one of the more unusual aspects from the Walking Dead comic book series that could have easily been dropped from the live-action adaptation because it isn’t really cheap to have a CGI tiger or a live tiger on the set of a TV show. But she’s there, and it looks like she and Ezekiel are going to play a big role in the upcoming season. If the show takes its cue from the comic, this is leading to an even larger conflict between the various survivors and Negan’s forces.
The Walking Dead season 7 will premiere on Sunday, October 23.
