The Walking Dead Bosses Defend That Finale Cliffhanger

 

The season six finale ended with one hell of a cliffhanger, all thanks to the arrival of the bat-wielding Negan. Jeffrey Dean Morgan made his grand entrance and wasted no time in terrifying us all and ruining our lives by lining up all of our favorite Walking Dead characters and choosing one to hit with his barbed-wire bat.

Many fans took to Twitter to express their anger at yet another cliffhanger and yet another reason to argue for the next six months. Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick addressed this anger during  finale aftershow, and it's clear that comic creator Robert Kirkman and executive producer Scott M. Gimple aren't on board. Kirkman said “As a fan, I love cliffhangers, I love that tension. If you read the comic books, pretty much every issue ends with a cliffhanger. I think that's a lot of fun”.

Aside from their love of cliffhangers, Gimple and Kirkman promise that the story ended that way for a reason. Kirkman said “The cliffhanger isn't the story, this episode is about the loss of that confidence. It's about tearing Rick Grimes down, and that's the conclusion of this episode. The story of who died, of what comes next, of who Negan killed, that's really the story of season seven”. Gimple also promised that the show will make it up to the fans for the end of that episode.  He said “We have to do an episode that justifies it to you, we have to do something so great and so intense that you're like, OK, all right, fair play, and that's the challenge that we have. We're going to do it, we're going to deliver you something fantastic. We want you to be one of those people in that lineup. We want you to feel that suspense, that terror, and that pain, and we're going to deliver you a story next season that justifies it”. 

The Walking Dead returns in October to AMC.