AMC is over football season and ready to kill some walkers in The Walking Dead Season 7. The network released a tongue-in-cheek ad during Super Bowl 51 with Lucille making a guest appearance.
Negan’s pride and joy showed off her ability to bash skulls on a football. It’s a pretty short teaser, but hey, at least it wasn’t your favorite character staring down Lucille. And if seeing Lucille smash a football triggered bad memories for you, The Walking Dead ’s own Andrew Lincoln has some words for you.
Lincoln, who plays Rick on the show, recently explained to Entertainment Weekly why the brutal Negan introduction was vital to The Walking Dead Season 7’s story arc. Lincoln had the same visceral reaction when he found out Negan would crush the skulls of two fan favorite characters. It wasn’t until he spoke with showrunner Scott M. Gimple about the decision to kill off the characters that he was able to put things into perspective.
“[Gimple] explained it to me in one way, which I found very helpful,” Lincoln told EW , “which was that rather than just have a very cool exciting buildup to war between between Negan and Rick, he 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.”
Lincoln added,”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.”
It was painful, but hopefully people saw the humor in the TV spot. The Walking Dead fans should gear up for an intense second half of Season 7. Rick and the gang are preparing for war. It won’t be easy, but Rick will have to convince his the other communities killing Negan is what’s best for everyone. Don’t think Ezekiel and Gregory will agree to it so easily.
The Walking Dead Season 7 premieres Feb. 12 on AMC.
