'The Walking Dead' at Comic-Con: Naked Rick, Tested Morgan, Wily Wolves
By Vlada Gelman
Don’t believe everything you see: It’s good advice for The Walking Dead‘s band of survivors — and excellent advice for its fans.
Although the trailer for Season 6 — which bows Oct. 11 at 9/8c with a 90-minute episode — hints at a power struggle between Rick and Morgan, “We sometimes play with the truth in trailers,” showrunner Scott Gimple warned at the show’s Comic-Con panel on Friday. However, “Rick absolutely is faced with challenges to the way he does things and also including these people in the way that he does things.”
Not to mention, the people who followed him into the bowels of hell might look at him differently, the EP previewed.
VIDEO The Walking Dead Releases Season 6 Trailer, Sets October Premiere
But how will Morgan and Rick view each other now that the two have reunited? “[They] have a particular kind of man-love,” Lennie James said. “Rick is the last person left on the planet who knows Morgan. And that’s why he goes to find him. And I think Morgan’s aware of the effect that Rick has had on him… There’s going to be fallout” following their reconnection.
James also hinted that viewers “may find out this season what Morgan’s been doing with himself” while he was MIA.
VIDEO Fear the Walking Dead Sneak Peek: Scared Student Sounds an Early Alarm
Other highlights from the panel:
FRESH BLOOD | Nurse Jackie alumna Merritt Wever has been cast in a top-secret role as a character from the comic book.
HOWL AT THE MOON | The wolves from last season’s finale “will be a part of Season 6, hopefully in a way that you don’t expect,” Gimple teased
NO KILLER INSTINCT | When asked why Glenn didn’t kill Nicholas, Steven Yeun joked, “He’s got beautiful eyes. Glenn is a better person than me. I also said, ‘Why didn’t you kill him?’ It’s complicated. It’s layered in the sense that Glenn is seeing a version of himself in him. [He] realizes what it means to cross that threshold… It serves no function in that moment to kill him.”
RELATED Walking Dead Spinoff Collars Southland‘s Shawn Hatosy
TIME TRIPS | The upcoming run will feature a lot of flashbacks in the first half — Gimple also is working on an episode that’s entirely set in the past — and “some playing with time, but not as much as last season.”
NEXT BIG OMG! SCENE | Abraham’s “biggest defining moment is yet to come,” Michael Cudlitz teased. (Got theories? Log ’em in the comments!)
RECOVERY ROAD | Sonequa Martin-Green hopes that Sasha finds “healing” and “restoration,” the actress shared. “She’s hit rock bottom. It’s been an honor for me to portray of PTSD in honor of those who have suffered from it. That’s what you hope, that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. That she finds a way to respond correctly to the deaths of her most loved ones.”
TAKE IT ALL OFF | Andrew Lincoln described having to get into the shower naked in front of the crew and shave off his beard as “one of the weirdest filming days of my life.” Added Gimple “The beard, both in the comic and the show, is a metric of where Rick is at. The beard will continue to inform” the character’s mindset.
DARYL’S JOURNEY | Daryl”didn’t want to go [to Alexandria] at all,” Norman Reedus said. But now that he’s there, he’s “found a place that could handle him and they gave him a job… That might go crazy later. He’s going up and down all the time. He finds his safe place with these people. It gets tested quite a bit.”
Launch Gallery: Fall TV Preview: Your Guide to What’s New
Related stories
TVLine’s Performer of the Week: Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln
Ominous Walking Dead Spoiler: Andrew Lincoln Warns of ‘Painful’ Midseason Finale
TVLine Items: UK’s Strike Back Gets U.S. Home, Salt Lake City Moves Days to Night and More!
Get more from TVLine: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter