The Walking Dead — Who’s Friend, Who’s Foe In (And Out Of) Alexandria In Season 6?

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Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon - The Walking Dead _ Season 6, Gallery - Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

The wait is almost over, Walking Dead-heads. And when we left the residents of Alexandria, upheaval was the order of the day. As Rick and Deanna continued to circle each other for control (and the moral mindset) of the community, loose cannon Dr. Pete slit the throat of Deanna’s docile husband and Rick shot him dead on the spot. Right in front of the newly arrived (and newly zen) Morgan, who showed up with Daryl and Aaron, all three having made chilling discoveries outside the gate.

Executive producer and zombie master Greg Nicotero promises a Season 6 opener of The Walking Dead that is “very bold” — and very, very zombie-filled. But with walkers and Wolves at the gate and mutiny simmering inside it, what’s the Season 6 headspace for your favorite characters? We ask the people who play them.

Rick (Andrew Lincoln)
Lincoln: “It’s pretty obvious where Rick’s strengths lie: in committing to keeping a place safe and secure. This is a man who’s not about to start a rebellion, but I think he’s not willing to back down on security and safety and educating these people — if they’re willing to come along — on how to survive. He’s not willing to risk his family or his children’s lives. It’s fun this new season. It’s very, very different. Also, it’s great to have Lennie’s character be a mirror for him — to have these two people who have this incredible connection throughout two years of hell and to have [Morgan] remind him of a man he is no longer.”

Nicotero: “When Morgan says, “Well, Daryl, all life is precious” and he takes the lucky rabbit’s foot off the rearview mirror and he spares the “W” men at the beginning of Episode 16, you’re like, “OK, that’s not the same guy who had lost his mind.” There’s a great dynamic with these two guys trying to decide whether they can trust each other. Because they don’t know each other. Two people that have lived out there have to now interact and almost erase everything they knew about each other to figure out who they are now.”

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Lennie James as Morgan and Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes  
Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

Morgan (Lennie James)
James: “The short answer is all life is precious. The longer answer is that Morgan is going to have to battle to see whether or not he can stick to that mantra. That involves his relationship with Rick, but it also as much involves his relationship with the group — and also his relationship with the Alexandrians. If you wanted to draw a line of what’s the difference between Rick and Morgan, Rick wakes up every morning thinking, “What can I do for the group?” Morgan has woken up every morning since he lost his son thinking, “What have I got to do for myself?” Now he’s with a bunch of other people he doesn’t know. Even though he’s calm, even though he’s trying to stick to the person he seems to have become right now, in this season we are going to see him battle with himself, as much as he battles with other people, to try and be the person that he wants to be.”

Daryl (Norman Reedus)
Reedus: “When we ended last season, Carol and Rick and I had that conversation on the porch, talking about Alexandrians — “If they’re not willing to bend a little bit and understand some things, then we’re just going to take the place.” Then I went back out on my mission and I’m in that car and I’m like, “Screw it. I’ll do it.” A lot of people said, “Why were you sacrificing yourself?” I don’t think he thought of that. When Morgan and I come back with Aaron, and see Rick [shooting Pete], I think the first thing going through Daryl’s head is, “It’s on. This is it. This is when we’re going to take the place. It’s happening!” Also, when Rick handed me the map, I would assume that Daryl and Rick spoke about Morgan. We’ve never done it on camera, but through time I assume that I might have an idea of who he might be.”

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Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon. Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

Michonne (Danai Gurira)
Gurira: “Challenging [Rick] comes from a place of love. It comes from a place of belief in him and support of him and support of the ideals that they share. They all want the same thing. They want the safety of his children. They want the safety of our people. They want to have some semblance of lives. It’s nothing combative; it’s quite the opposite. It’s really about “I need to check you because I love you, because I care for you, because I care about our community and I care about your leadership.” That’s exactly what she was doing in the penultimate episode: “I’m going to knock you out so that when you wake up tomorrow, you won’t have done something that you really can’t come back from and that we as a community, as your people, also can’t come back from.” As they got to the end of the last episode that aired, they had a conversation where he confessed to her things that he had been hiding. I think that’s a true friendship, when you can put everything out on the table. He received her grace and her forgiveness and her support.”

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Danai Gurira as Michonne. Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

Carol (Melissa McBride)
McBride: “There was a lot with Tyreese, because of what she did — what she felt she had to do — with Karen and David and guilt that she felt. Struggling with, “Well, I did what I thought I should do” — and then losing Tyreese. Just having to come to terms with things on her own. I’m glad she had that reconciliation with Tyreese and she was forgiven. That meant the world. That still means the world going forward — that somebody understood her. But there’s people who have no idea. Moreover, nobody knows about Lizzie and Mika. So she carries that forgiveness and she carries that soul of him, that partnership with him. She carries that with her. That’s a very big deal for her.”

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Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier. Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

Glenn (Steven Yeun)
Yeun: “I think Glenn has become his own man and has been for a while. It’s always been this symbiotic relationship between Glenn and Rick in that Glenn always looked to Rick as the leader, the de facto leader, because he respects him. He believes him. He trusts him. Early on, he questioned him every single step of the way, whether it be through a look or a glance or even saying, “This is a bad idea” and in that regard, they grew together. I think where Glenn is now is that it’s not pulling away from Rick, but maybe they’re getting to a place where they can each be their own person, that they don’t need to be so intertwined with each other because now they have some semblance of safety. Some actual, possible semblance of safety.”

Steve Yeun as Glenn - The Walking Dead _ Season 6, Gallery - Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC
Steve Yeun as Glenn – The Walking Dead _ Season 6, Gallery – Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

Judith and Carl (and the other Alexandrian kids)
Lincoln: “We’ve made a conscious decision to have Judith more active and less of a prop. I think Greg brought it up — “We want this child to have a relationship with the actors as well.” Some of my favorite scenes this season are with the kids, with the teenagers, because we still have a history we’re holding onto: the past. These children, these young adults, don’t have that anchor. That’s very disturbing and very interesting and also difficult as a parent as well. Because, how do you parent any teenager when they’re going through puberty — well, try it with 20,000 zombies!”

Nicotero: “The real paranoia and conflict as Rick’s going forward is basically like, “We have to live here because I can’t take my family, my kids, out there again. So if you guys can’t get your @#$% together, I’ll just kill all of you. Then we will live here, and you will be dead.”

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Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes and Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes. Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

The (Many, Many) Walkers

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The Walking Dead Season 6 walker — Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Nicotero: “We’ve been doing a lot more full-body, seeing some muscle and bone exposed — and we came up with a whole new system. A lot of my ideas come when I’m sitting in L.A. traffic. I’m just sitting there thinking about the show and how to improve things and it’s like, “Why don’t we get a spray-tan tent and just put zombie color — have people walk through and go psh! psh!” Because you watch the show and you see pink faces way, way in the background. You guys don’t see it as much, but we do. On the first episode we had 300 people and they were all in makeup. By 9:30 in the morning we had 300 people made up.”

Lincoln: “It’s been really big and hugely ambitious this season. [The camera guys] said that last season in 16 episodes there were 967 zombies. This season, we’re not even through seven episodes and it’s over 2,000 already!”

The Walking Dead  Season 6 premieres Sunday Oct. 11 at 9/8CT on AMC

 

1 Comment

  1. Glenn will be missed dearly. And no, no conspiracy theories, I believe that he was killed. One producer already stated that ‘a part or parts of Glenn will be seen again’ which means he will probably make an entrance as a walker in the future. And someone will have to face the dirty deed to finish him.

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Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.