Andrew Lincoln’s mother is the epitome of all The Walking Dead fans that have ever existed. She was on team Richonne before anyone else, she worries about Daryl, but most important of all, she’s worried about Rick going all Shane again like the rest of us.
Lincoln chatted with Entertainment Weekly about The Walking Dead Season 7, where he revealed his mother’s reaction to the Season 6 cliffhanger. Lincoln’s mom was concerned Rick wouldn’t be able to get out of the funk, but also whether her son could go to the dark place to get through filming the first episodes of Season 7.
“I remember my mother said to me, ‘That’s going to be quite a challenge to get back into that state that you were straight after a break,’” Lincoln told EW . “And I just said, ‘Thanks, mom. That’s kind of my job, thank you.’”
We definitely don’t want Lincoln to get lost in a broken Rick Grimes either. Things will definitely get a lot worse for Rick’s group before they get better. Negan has successfully destroyed Rick’s perception of himself and shown the leader of Alexandria he is not the strongest man out there. Rick will learn the hard way that he’ll need allies if he wants to coexist, let alone survive, with people like Negan.
That said, Negan’s introduction opens up The Walking Dead world in ways fans haven’t seen before. Rick’s group have encountered small communities, and it’s usually one at a time. For example, The Governor’s community was similar to Alexandria. They had weapons and a system in place to keep its people in place. However, they didn’t have Rick as a leader, so it was long before the Governor lost control of himself and his people.
Negan loves power and doesn’t have the Governor’s insecurities. In fact, Negan has a god complex only another narcissist could understand. If Shane were still around, he’d probably be more like Negan and less like Rick.
The Walking Dead Season 7 premieres Oct. 23 on AMC.
