‘The Walking Dead’ Creator Robert Kirkman Says Another Cliffhanger Ending is Not Likely
Let’s be real. Nobody likes cliffhangers. In a world full of instant gratification, we don’t like to wait to find out what’s going to happen next in a compelling story. Even if you LOVED the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead, chances are, you feel just a little bit cheated by not finding out who met their ultimate demise at the hands of Negan and Lucille.
Show creator Robert Kirkman as well as show runner Scott Gimple have both addressed the cliffhanger ending multiple times, stating that it was not meant to “play” with the audience but, they felt it was necessary for storytelling purposes. We get that, we understand. But, I think we can all agree that we don’t want that to happen again, right?
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kirkman has addressed the possibility of a future cliffhanger for Season 7. Fans can rest easy as there appear to be no future plans to do anything similar to the craziness of Season 6. Kirkman tells EW:
“Look, I think as a creative person I have to acknowledge that all responses are valid, so I definitely have to take note that there’s a seemingly significant portion of the audience that wasn’t happy with that direction, so in that respect I think everyone onThe Walking Dead creative team has taken note of that, and I don’t know that I would expect a similar cliffhanger at the end of season 7.
At the same time, I know it’s just a small portion of the audience, and a lot of people actually like the mystery and are enjoying the guessing game that they’re playing over the summer so I don’t know. But you get to season 6 on a show and you try new things and sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t, but I would hope that after enjoying six seasons of the show people would recognize that, everything that [showrunner] Scott Gimple is putting together is an effort to keep the show exciting, and engaging, and keeping everybody excited about it.
A lot of the responses were like, “Ah, these jerks trying to pull one over on us,” and it’s like, “No. It’s all done in an effort to keep you entertained.” We love the fan base, we love the audience and so if you didn’t like this one you’ll like the next one. We hopefully have many more seasons to go.”
We are sure that Season 7 will be nothing short of the amazing entertainment and storytelling that we’ve come to expect from the show. Just, no more cliffhangers, please!!
The Walking Dead Season 7 premieres October 23rd at 9pm EST on AMC.
A karaoke obsessed, craft beer enthusiast and lover of all things pop culture, Denise enjoys all facets of entertainment from Broadway to box office blockbusters. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, concerts (lots and lots of concerts), volunteering, reading and playing with her rescue kitten, Samantha (who rescued who, right?).
