‘The Walking Dead’ Comic-Con Trailer Introduces New Faces, Man and Beast

The Walking Dead Season 7
AMC

AMC has very carefully strung together a trailer for Season 7 of The Walking Dead that doesn’t spoil the controversial cliffhanger the series halted on back in April. At today’s Hall H Comic-Con panel, Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick took the stage with Walking Dead executive producers Scott M. Gimple, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and David Alpert and stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Michael Cudlitz, Sonequa Martin-Green, Ross Marquand, Christian Serratos and Josh McDermitt to drop some hints about next season and release the new footage.

After a teaser reel of all the characters whose lives are at stake in the Season 7 premiere and a few obligatory, suspense-building shots of frightened faces and a barbed-wire baseball bat, the trailer shifts focus to a few characters, new and old, who weren’t part of Negan’s (Morgan) lineup. Notably, the trailer shows off more of Negan himself and the community of Saviors he leads, with fellow Savior, Dwight (Austin Amelio), also getting some screen time. A few Walker-slaying action shots of characters like Morgan (Lennie James) and Jesus (Tom Payne) are mixed in, along with a tonally confusing clip of an oddly chipper Carol (Melissa McBride).

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But the biggest reveal from the trailer was certainly the introduction of the Kingdom—a new community teased in the Season 6 finale—and its leaders “King” Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Shiva. Shiva, for those who don’t follow the comics, is a tiger that fights zombies. This is an important development not just for The Walking Dead, but for television in general.

The Walking Dead, Season 7 premiere, October 23, 9/8c, AMC