The Walking Dead actor Andrew Lincoln understands why fans were extremely upset by the horrible cliffhanger in the Season 6 finale. Lincoln recently explained to Entertainment Weekly he wasn’t expecting the negative response, but loves that fans are passionate about the franchise.
If you’re not caught up with The Walking Dead, the infamous Season 6 finale left off with a first-person view of Negan beating someone to death. Negan’s victim wasn’t revealed, which had some fans feeling like the cliffhanger a cheap tactic to get viewers to tune in for The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere. Lincoln tries, in general, to avoid social media and online debates, and doesn’t feel it’s his place to argue with fans about the show.
“The first time I went to Comic-Con and I heard the reaction to the trailer, I realized that we handed the show over to the fans at that point,” Lincoln told EW. “It was a done deal. And so, there is a sort of symbiotic relationship with the show and the fanbase, which is also part of a bigger conversation in my opinion. We’re just a small part of a much bigger conversation online. And far be it for me to say someone’s right or wrong.
Lincoln continued, “We love the fans. I love the fact that everybody is so engaged with it and so opinionated about it. I think it’s a great energy that we feed off. I mean, obviously we don’t want a divided reaction every time we do something as a season finale because then we’d start to be concerned, but we value and respect everybody’s opinion because without it we wouldn’t be here. I sort of keep out of the online stuff. I don’t do any social media. I don’t read reviews, because you can’t just take the good stuff. You have to take the bad stuff as well, and I don’t want to engage in that.”
Still, the least Lincoln can do is admit the cliffhanger was a bad idea. The reasoning behind not revealing Negan’s victim was the episode was about a turning point for Rick, not about the person who died. Anyway, we have our suspicions as to who gets Lucille’d in the end. Hopefully The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere makes up for the underwhelming cliffhanger.
