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‘Walking Dead’ director Greg Nicotero defends violent Season 7 premiere

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tortures his captives in the Season 7 premiere of 'The Walking Dead.'. AMC

WARNING: Some ‘TWD’ spoilers ahead!

On Sunday night, zombie apocalypse series The Walking Dead aired its Season 7 premiere after a long six-month hiatus. Audiences waited with bated breath to see who big baddie Negan would kill with his weapon, Lucille (a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire).

After a lengthy 20-minute lead-in (and two commercial breaks!), Negan finally did the deed, killing not one, but two main characters. Yes, fan-favourites Glenn and Abraham bit the dust; but it wasn’t so much who died as much as how they died.

READ MORE: AMC threatens to sue The Walking Dead fansite over spoilers

The show did not hide the two characters’ brutal beatings, and there was another gruesome moment where leader Rick was almost forced into cutting off part of his son’s arm. It was harrowing, and many longtime fans said they were going to quit watching the show because of the graphic violence. Here is but a sample of the tweets about the premiere:

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Now, Greg Nicotero, who directed the episode and is usually in charge of the show’s special effects, is defending the use of violence and gore in the Season 7 premiere.

“If we killed someone and [the audience was] just like, ‘OK, well, no big deal, I’m gonna go have a bagel,’ then that means that we haven’t done something to connect our people to the characters,” said Nicotero on a conference call with reporters.
“It was important to launch us into this season by showing the extent of what Negan is capable of doing, because that drives so much of where the series is going from here on in,” he continued. “[Seeing Rick], our hero, completely crushed … is more disturbing than the actual violence.”
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As for people who say they’re giving up on The Walking Dead, Nicotero says they’re going to miss out.

“I would say that [these threats] mean we have done something to affect these people in a way that they don’t necessarily know how to process,” he said. “Listen … I’ve been shocked at the turns of events on Game of Thrones. But you know what? I still love it. And I’m still committed to seeing where that story goes. So I think it’s a knee-jerk reaction that people have, because they care about these characters. That’s a tribute to every single actor on our show that has perished. It’s unfortunate that people want to take a negative spin on it … because the show still has a lot to offer.”

Audience disgust with the violence most certainly didn’t impact the show’s ratings: its Season 7 premiere had The Walking Dead‘s second-highest viewership numbers since the series began.

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