The Walking Dead – Violence WAS NOT Toned Down as a Reaction to Series 7 Premiere

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Last week we brought you a story in which “The Walking Dead’s” executive producer Gale Anne Hurd acknowledged that due to the negative response to the bludgeon slayings of two key characters in the Season 7 premiere, producers were prompted to make adjustments in episodes that were still in production at the time (i.e., the violence would be toned down).

Today showrunner Scott Gimple, along with Greg Nictotero, is disputing Hurd’s statements via Entertainment Weekly.

The violence in the premiere was pronounced for a reason,” says Gimple. “The awfulness of what happened to the characters was very specific to that episode and the beginning of this whole new story. I don’t think like that’s the base level of violence that necessarily should be on the show. It should be specific to a story and a purpose, and there was a purpose of traumatizing these characters to a point where maybe they would have been docile for the rest of their lives, which was Negan’s point. But I will say again, the violence in the premiere was for a specific narrative purpose, and I would never say that that’s the baseline amount of violence that we would show on the show. If we’re ever going to see something that pronounced, there needs to be a specific narrative purpose for it.

Executive producer and director Greg Nicotero answers with a flat “No” when asked if anything was toned down later as a result of fan feedback, and he also says that if they could go back, they would not change a thing. “As brutal as that episode 1 was, it’s still part of our storytelling bible, which is what the world is about. I don’t think we would ever edit ourselves, and I think — even after looking at that episode 1 again — as tough as it was for people to watch, I don’t think we would have done it any differently. I don’t think we’ll ever pull ourselves back. There is definitely a difference between violence against walkers and human on human violence, but truthfully, we’re serving our story.

There you go, kids. There are two sides to every story, and the truth usually hits somewhere in between.

“The Walking Dead” returns to AMC in February with Episode 7.09. In the upcoming episode, Jesus (Tom Payne) leads Rick and company to the Kingdom in hopes of convincing King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) to team up with them and the Hilltop against a common threat.

“The Walking Dead” Season 7 stars Andrew Lincoln, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Sonequa Martin-Green, Alanna Masterson, Christian Serratos, Josh McDermitt, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton, Xander Berkeley, Austin Amelio, and Tom Payne.

Season 7B kicks off on February 12, 2017.

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