'The Walking Dead' Season 6: Everything We Know So Far
(The following is a preview of coming attractions for Season 6, so, duh, potential spoilers ahead.)
Morgan and Rick reunited… only to become rivals? Newly promoted cast members and newly presented residents of Alexandria. More zombies, more flashbacks and backstories, and more villains… maybe even the biggest villain of all time from the comic books. Those are but a few of the things fans have to look forward to when The Walking Dead premieres its sixth season on Oct. 11. Here’s a rundown of everything we know about the season so far, aka all the reasons to expect it’s going to be the best season yet.
An Uncivil Civil War in Alexandria?
Look at how much Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) — and his hair — have grown! He and papa Rick (Andy Lincoln) are looking pretty peaceful on the front porch of their Alexandria home, but there is a big gun at Rick’s side, and he’s definitely going to be using it early in Season 6. And often. And maybe against some of his new fellow townsfolk.
Overall, the first half of the season revolves around conflict, especially after Rick offed town doctor Pete in the Season 5 finale. Even though he killed Pete (who became known as “Porch Dick” among TWD fans) at Alexandria leader Deanna’s behest, not everyone in the post-apocalyptic pop-up ‘burg is happy that Rick and his friends have moved in and turned Alexandria into a very violent enclave. And they’re not going to be shy about vocalizing that displeasure (see below: new guy Carter).
“There was a huge upheaval in Alexandria at the end of [Season 5]. What position of leadership does it put Rick into, how he handles new responsibilities and what he does with them is a big part of what we are exploring,” TWD daddy Robert Kirkman said in the summer 2015 issue of the official Walking Dead magazine.
Friends: The Reunion
Not that Friends reunion. We’re talking Rick and Morgan Jones. When we left Rick at the end of Season 5, his dear friend Morgan, the first human Rick interacted with after awakening from his coma and to the zombie apocalypse in the series pilot, had finally found Rick. Unfortunately, the reunion involved Morgan arriving just as coup-minded Rick had killed abusive doctor Pete, and the seemingly Zen Morgan is likely to be shocked at — and possibly disturbed by — Rick’s extremely un-Zen outlook on life. “I can say that where Rick is and where Morgan is, they will find common grounds,” Morgan portrayer Lennie James tells Yahoo TV. “But they will also be in conflict. That’s about as much as I can say.”
Added Kirkman in TWD magazine, “A lot of the things we’re doing with Morgan in Season 6 were set up and initiated in Season 3.
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“We had an opportunity with Morgan now that Rick has gone through all of the things he’s gone through,” Kirkman continued. “The Rick Grimes and the Morgan Jones interacting in Season 6 are very different from the ones interacting in Season 3, who, in turn, are very different from the men interacting in Season 1. They have changes so much over time, so we’ll see a lot of difference in how they behave towards each other and in relation to each other, which will lead to some exciting stories.”
Casting Call
James, by the way, has been promoted to series regular status for Season 6, which is, hopefully, an indication of how long he’ll be sticking around.
Also promoted to regular cast status for the new season: Tovah Feldshuh as Deanna, Alexandra Breckenridge as Jessie (Rick’s potential love match), and Austin Nichols as Spencer, Deanna’s son and only remaining family member. That brings the cast lineup to 18, the largest in the show’s history.
As for new faces in Season 6, That Thing You Do! and Grace and Frankie star Ethan Embry plays Carter, an Alexandrian who is unhappy about how violent things got after Rick and his crew moved into the ‘hood. “Ethan plays a combo of a few characters that we actually haven’t hit yet or weren’t able to hit in other characters,” showrunner Scott Gimple told EW.com. “He is an Alexandrian, and has been there the whole time, just quite busy.” In the Walking Dead comics, there is a Carter who lived in Alexandria, but he was killed while the community was being built.
Other new faces: Straight Outta Compton star Corey Hawkins as Heath, who, in the comics, is a supply runner who’s paired up with Glenn; and Nurse Jackie Emmy winner Merritt Wever as Denise, an Alexandria doctor who, in the comics, is Heath’s girlfriend. In the comics, she’s also responsible for saving the life of one of the original TWD characters… will that storyline give her the opportunity to play heroine in the series, too?
The Zombies Are More Plentiful Than Ever, Too
The cast of human types is the show’s biggest ever, and so is the lineup of zombies. The season premiere alone will feature 654 rotters, more than three times the previous record for zombies on TWD. EP/director/special FX makeup guru Greg Nicotero detailed in a “Dispatches From the Set” feature at AMC.com that he and his crew used a new spray tan technique — which he dreamed up while sitting in Los Angeles traffic — to allow them to zombify more actors, more quickly.
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“I think we have already exceeded the total number of walkers [for] all of last year just in the first three episodes of Season 6,” says Nicotero, who directed the season premiere, and will also direct the midseason premiere, Episode 12, and the season finale. “The thing I love about the show, especially in terms of the makeup, is that we’re constantly redefining what we do… one thing that’s very important… is to keep the anatomy real. Scott [Gimple] and I had conversations about, for example, exposed bones. Musculature would need to exist for the walkers to move around and we keep that authentic and realistic. By doing that, we have really taken the walkers in this season to a whole different level. There are walkers who have been partially skinned, who have been partially devoured by wild animals… it continues to allow us the opportunity for more fantastic creations.”
Nicotero, who will appear as a zombie in the third episode of the new season, and teases a zombie visual he’s wanted to create for several seasons will become a reality in Season 6. “The reality of this world is that if you’re fighting a walker and you have a weapon and you don’t make it, that implement would stay embedded in the walker’s chest. So, we loved the idea of seeing a walker with an implement embedded, and then one of our heroes pulls the weapon out and actually uses it. We just thought it would be a bad-ass thing to do! We pitched it a couple of years ago, and I think it’s safe to say we found a great opportunity this season.”
Timing Is of the Essence
“The first episode almost starts literally on the last shot of the Season 5 finale. Then we kind of… we’re slightly playing with time and the storytelling, which is fantastic,” James says. “In the end, the audience will know what happened and what is happening when we rejoin the season. It’s so massive, but we get there in a slightly nonlinear way.”
As usual, flashbacks will also play a major role in the storytelling, with one episode unfolding entirely in flashbacks. And Gimple confirmed we’ll also get backstory on what life in Alexandria was like pre-Grimes invasion.
What Has Morgan Been Up to All This Time?
Another backstory specific: We will absolutely find out what Morgan has been up to since we last spent quality time with him in Season 3’s “Clear” (an episode that was written by Gimple in his pre-showrunner days), i.e. how he became the calm new Morgan he appears to be, and where he learned those serious combat skills he used against the Wolves in the Season 5 finale.
“Yes, you will find out what has caused the change in Morgan. The only thing I would say about that is… the last time you saw him he was crazy. This time when you’re seeing him, he seems remarkably less crazy. It seems like he kind of became a different person. That is true to one extent,” James tells Yahoo TV. “But closer to the truth is that Morgan is on a journey. We saw him at one point of the journey. Then we meet him on a different point on it. But he’s not necessarily complete. He’s possibly still on his way to finding something. He’s fighting to be somebody. He’s fighting to believe in something. He’s trying to find a way of surviving as everybody is in this new world that he’s a part of. Yes, Morgan has gone through changes, but those changes are not necessarily complete.”
The TV Show Prequels the Comics
Robert Kirkman’s TWD comics provide the inspiration for the series, but this season, the TV show will fill in some backstory for things in the comic books. “It’s earlier in Alexandria, but not the beginning of Alexandria,” Gimple told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s more character-based than the background of the place. There are some stories filled in with regards to the comic that we haven’t even gotten to yet — sort of prequeling some comic stories that are coming up, which I’m very excited about.”
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Hungry Like The Wolves
What we know about The Wolves, the villains Rick, his group, and the Alexandrians are definitely going to face in Season 6:
1. They were officially introduced in “Conquer,” the Season 5 finale, but their handiwork goes back to, at least, Shirewilt Estates, where they killed many people, including the family of the late Noah.
2. They kill people, take their supplies, carve Ws into their foreheads, and then use the dead bodies as bait.
3. They’re vicious, but they were outsmarted and outmaneuvered by Morgan.
4. They like to leave graffiti mementos of themselves, often painting “Wolves Not Far” in places where they’ve wreaked havoc.
5. TWD comics fans think The Wolves may be the series version of the comics’ Scavengers, a group of survivors who live on the road and kill other survivors and take their belongings; The Whisperers, another group of villains who communicate with each other in whispers, and who wear zombie skins to blend in with the walkers; or The Saviors, yet another group of survivors, who created a community in an old factory and who are lead by the infamous Negan. Our money’s on The Wolves being closest to The Scavengers, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see elements of the other groups, too, especially Negan (see below).
6. The Wolves murdered the man in a red poncho Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) had been tracking in the finale.
7. They found Aaron’s photos, meaning they know about Alexandria and the some of the people there.
Melissa McBride, whose Carol will almost certainly be one of The Wolves’ most formidable foes, told EW, “They apparently just mutilate whatever is in their way, and that is very frightening. We’re going to put some of the pieces together in Season 6 and figure out more about who they are and why they are the way they are and what they want.”
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The Herd: Imminent?
Without delving too heavily in the comic books for those who haven’t read them, shortly after Rick and company’s arrival in Alexandria in the comics, a herd of zombies breaks through the walls of the town, leading to lots of death (including characters who are currently active in the TV series) and one iconic injury (again, to one of the main characters, who’s currently very active in the series). Herd of zombies… like that one we saw in Season 5’s “Self Help,” when Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) was trying to get Eugene (Josh McDermitt) to Washington in the fire truck? Like one, maybe, that requires 654 zombie actors? One that might lead to what James and Gimple and other TWD-ers have called a “massive” 90-minute Season 6 premiere?
“ The premiere episode is pretty amazing,” executive producer Denise Huth told AMC.com. “It’s huge in a big, big way. It’s something we’ve never seen before on the show, so I’m just excited for them to come back from where we left them and how everything ended last season and hit the ground running. Even with having the road map of the comic, you still never know exactly where we’re going!”
Negan’s Arrival: Imminent?
The arrival of the most notorious TWD comic book villain is one of the most anticipated events for the series, and the timeline of the show is far enough along that Negan could make his debut at any time, as early as Season 6. As Gimple confirmed to EW: “It’s absolutely a possibility,” he said. “We have a plan in place, but there’s a couple variables for that plan that we’re deciding about. It really depends on a few factors as we move into setting up the last bit of the season, storywise.” Which could mean great news for viewers, potentially not-so-great news for a fan-favorite character who becomes a victim of Negan’s barbed wire-covered baseball bat, who he named Lucille, in the comics.
P.S. Fans have shared many suggestions for Negan casting on social media, but The Walking Dead comic book artist Charlie Adlard once confirmed the person Robert Kirkman had in mind when he created Negan: actor and punk rocker Henry Rollins.
Love Among the Zombies
A relationship between widower Rick Grimes and Jessie Anderson seemed like an inevitability at one point during the end of Season 5, but given that she’s now a widow, thanks to Rick… too soon? Andy Lincoln put it best, joking to EW.com, “It’s never easy, dating in the apocalypse… I think the next candlelit dinner could be problematic. We’ve got a bit to talk about. Only on this show. Its like, ‘It’s going rather well apart from the fact we almost killed each other in the street the night before. And then I shoot your husband the next day. Anyway, should we move on from here?’”
On the other hand, as we mentioned before, Pete was the guy known as “Porch Dick,” and the name was well-earned. Jessie, and her sons, are likely traumatized by Pete’s death, or least by the circumstances of it, but she was clearly attracted to Rick, so maybe a Rick romance isn’t totally out of the question. We’re guessing we might have to wait until the second half of the season to see it come to fruition, though.
The Walking Dead Season 6 premieres Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. on AMC.
