Lennie James Warns of Betrayal Upon The Walking Dead’s Return
While the countdown to the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead grows smaller and smaller, fans are learning more information on our favorite characters and what we can look forward to when season 7 picks up. When we left our favorite characters last year, they were preparing for battle. A battered Rick found strength in having his group reunited, as well as Daryl’s return. This allowed the rest of the family to find strength within themselves too. It was no longer a broken group trying to find the light, it was a group lit on fire.
During a recent interview with Lennie James, a sense of betrayal and also of new camaraderie. Could this mean that Dwight turns on Negan and helps the group; there were certainly times during the first half of season 7 where he appeared to desire a sense of humanity again? Could it mean that one of our favorite characters, or more than one, loses themselves and turns on their own? While it’s easy to imagine Dwight finally turning on Negan, it’s not easy to imagine any of the family turning on themselves, we don’t want to consider it.
“On one level, it’s very obvious that we’re getting ready for war, and everyone who knows the comic books knows that we’re about to go into a couple of years of war. I don’t know how long that’s going to pan out in the television series, but it goes on for a while in the comics. So we’re about to go to war, and the second block [of eight episodes] is about meeting the protagonists and certain events that are going to decide what sides people take. And it’s not going to be a clear division of labor, let me say.”
While that part was to be expected, the next part is what stings.
“There are some people who go to the dark side who are going to take you by surprise, and there are some people who are going to come over to the light – and that’s all a matter of perspective.”
James does mention perspective and that’s an important thing to consider when you look at any character on The Walking Dead. To some, Rick is a hero and a martyr, to others, he’s the bane of their existence entirely. Negan is public enemy number one, but to some, he’s a broken man who found a way to stand up for himself, even if that way hurts others. If you look at each character subjectively, you’ll see more depth. That being said, perhaps the betrayal – we hope – will seem to be one way and end up being something different entirely.
All we know for sure, as well as what the cast and crew know, is that a battle is coming. They’re preparing for war, and with the fierceness we saw in the last moments of season 7 before the mid-season finale, that war is going to be of epic proportions.
They’re not just up against zombies anymore, they’re up against one another, they’re fighting for the only remaining sense of being human that they’ve got left.
It’s worth an all out war.
‘…but I knew him’
