Eeny, meeny, miny, moe - it takes a lot to make a show. In the case of The Walking Dead season 6, it took filming Negan kill every character, not just the person who actually died
In the history of horror TV, few cliffhangers were as big as the end of The Walking Dead season 6. The finale, which aired April 3, 2016, ended with a major character dying, but due to the way it was shot, fans didn't get to find out who that character was until the season 7 premiere, six full months later. That's a huge spoiler to keep for a decently long time, but according to a recent quote from TWD producer Greg Nicotero, the team figured out a way to keep the uncertainty alive, even on set.
That is, they simply filmed a death scene for all of the characters,
Let's back this up a bit. In case you weren't there for the end of season 6, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's villainous Negan (who was a lot less likable than he is these days) had just been introduced as the vicious leader of the violent group called "the Saviors." A group of beloved TWD characters, led by Rick Grimes, had chosen to defy the Saviors, but were apprehended, and the episode ended with them at Negan's mercy. The punishment, he decided, was to beat one of them to death for trying to rebel against his rule.
But when the bat, named Lucille, came down, the camera switched to the victim's POV, leaving viewers to wonder for an entire summer who had received the deathblow. Nearly a decade later, producer and head of special effects Nicotero was at this year's Nightmare Weekend Chicago to talk about keeping the secret.
"When we did the lineup with Negan," Nicotero explains, "Because [AMC] were so worried about spoilers, we had to shoot shots of every single person being hit with the bat just to throw everyone off."
Some nine years later, we know now that it was poor Glenn (Steven Yeun) that got the bat first, followed shockingly by Abraham (Michael Cudlitz). But if what Nicotero says is true (and we don't think he's lying), that means that, on that night of filming, cast and crew watched the fake deaths of Daryl (Norman Reedus), Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Aaron (Ross Marquand), and even young Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs).
We'd love to see the bill for fake blood from that shoot. Then again, it is a zombie show produced by horror SFX legend Greg Nicotero. There was probably a pretty impressive reserve in that budget already.
