‘The Walking Dead’: Season 7B Premiere Will Be “Stupendous”

The Walking Dead Andrew Lincoln AMC

The Walking Dead is set to return next week, but rumblings regarding the midseason episode have already started to emerge. While some fans may have been disappointed with how Season 7A turned out, director/exec-producer/visual effects guru Greg Nicotero has some words on how the midseason premiere will play out.

Nicotero, who previously directed the finale of season 6 and premiere of season 7 will be seen directing three out of eight episodes this season. When speaking to EW, he stated that fan will get to see the survivors back, ready to enact their vengeance on Negan.

“I’m very excited, I think episode nine is one of the best of the season, by far, in terms of storytelling, in terms of performances, in terms of audience expectations of seeing the band back together and putting our group back on their feet again. It’s very exciting and quite a bit of fun, and the season builds and builds up to an absolutely thrilling finale.”

As exciting as that seems, Nicotero dropped an ever bigger tease, one that may just be one for the history books.

“In the midseason premiere, there’s an action sequence that I devised that is pretty stupendous and very exciting. I can’t wait for people to see it.”

While he didn’t go into the minutiae of the scene, EW saw their chance and asked if it compares to season 4’s Big Spot supermarket action sequence, which was also directed by Nicotero. And to our surprise, he said,

“It’ll put the Big Spot to shame.”

The midseason premiere will be titled “Rock In The Road” and the episode will deal with Rick being introduced to a new community. You can check out the full synopsis for the rest of the season below.

Rick’s group will find out yet again that the world isn’t what they thought it was. It’s much bigger than anything they’ve seen so far. While they have a singular purpose – to defeat Negan – it won’t come easy. More importantly, victory will require more than Alexandria. They need the numbers of the Kingdom and the Hilltop, but, similar to how Rick felt, Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Gregory (Xander Berkeley) do not want bloodshed. To convince them otherwise will take more than speeches. The lengths Rick and the group will have to go to in order to find weapons, food and new fighters is nothing short of remarkable.We’ll meet new survivors in incredible places. We’ll see Rick and the group tested in ways we’ve never seen before. We’ll see treachery from people we trust.  Rick is confident as he will see his group and many others band together with the common goal of taking down Negan.  But no amount of planning will prepare the group for all-out war with Negan and his army.

The Walking Dead will return on February 12th at 9 p.m ET on AMC.

Source: EW