With less than a month left until The Walking Dead Season 7 debuts on AMC, the network has released the full, official plot synopsis. We don't learn who Negan's victim is in this synopsis, but it teases that the world Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his crew inhabit, is bigger and deadlier than they could have ever imagined. If that wasn't enough, Daryl himself, Norman Reedus, offered new details in a recent interview, along with new photos, which you can check out below the official synopsis.
"Up until this point, our characters have lived through conflicts... Disease, hunger, scores of the undead, tragedy, betrayal, and unthinkable loss. Through this, they've become formidable. Powerful. Unstoppable. To start season seven, that power is taken away. They had found safety and stability. They had created a home. They thought the world was theirs. They thought they knew the world. They were wrong. The first half of season seven sees our group fractured, broken, bereaved, and picking up the pieces while living under the thumb of oppression. Negan will have successfully brought the survivors under his control, brutally convincing them to live under his rules with a deadly and horrific example of what happens if they don't. Other characters are unaware of what's happened, but have become separated from the group either by incident or choice - they will learn that they can't escape this new turn of their world, either. This half-season is about these characters starting over. The overall theme of the season is beginning again. The world isn't what they thought it was. It's bigger and it's even more dangerous."
What's interesting is the AMC synopsis seems to indicate that the characters who weren't trapped by Negan in the Season 6 finale, most notably, Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol (Melissa McBride), won't be reuniting with Rick and his group anytime soon. It is believed that they are both taken to The Kingdom early on this season, where they will meet King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and his pet tiger Shiva. In related news, Norman Reedus shed some light on Negan's army, heading into Season 7 during a new interview.
"He's got an army of people who all call themselves Negan. They are doing everything he says. There's no way around that right now. How is Negan able to stop [Rick's] group in its tracks where others have failed? Fear is a bigger motivator than love or revenge or anything else. He is putting fear in people and that does wonders. It is particularly cruel because he uses a nursery rhyme. He's not remorseful and it's not personal. It's just going to happen...just to keep the order."
As for which character will be killed by Negan and his barbed wire bat Lucille, that won't be revealed until the show returns on Sunday, October 23 at 9 PM ET on AMC. The Walking Dead will also introduce two new characters, a grandmother type named Naomi and an optimistic teenager named Jennie. It isn't known who has been cast as these characters yet, or when we may see them on The Walking Dead Season 7. Take a look at the new photos from The Walking Dead as the countdown to the Season 7 premiere continues.
