The Walking Dead: Cast talks about dark finale

Greg Nicotero, Andrew Lincoln and some other cast members weigh in on the darkness of the script for the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead.

After tonight, only 3 episodes remain until the highly anticipated season 6 finale and the potential introduction of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Robert Kirkman’s infamous comic book villain, Negan.

We’ve heard from Greg Nicotero and several cast members about the darkness of the script. Talk ranges from physical reactions in the cast upon reading it to difficulty showing up to set that day to shoot the scenes, and time needed to get over it afterward.

Negan is not mentioned by any of the cast or Nicotero when discussing the finale so we don’t know how directly or indirectly he is involved in the darkness of the events. We don’t know if there will be a cliffhanger or how a cliffhanger might be part of Negan’s introduction. Nicotero answered the cliffhanger question this way (Via Comicbook.com):

"“I don’t know if I can answer that just yet. We’re still playing around with the pacing of that episode. I can tell you that the last episode, the pace and the build of what happens from the teaser to the end, it’s a pretty precipitous drop to a very dark place.”"

Ross Marquand discussed the episode with Andrew Lincoln before filming. He compared it to The Usual Suspects in quality, saying that if the actors do their jobs right with the script they have, it should be one of the most talked about episodes ever. (Via Comicbook.com)

"“I think it’s probably the most wrought, like emotionally wrought, and dark episode I’ve ever read, regardless of this show or not. I’ve never seen or read an episode that is so dark and so compelling in my life and that’s the God’s honest truth. I told Andy, I don’t normally get so affected by scripts that I have to put them down, but I had to stop reading this at three different times. I couldn’t read it, it was messing me up. It was tough to read. It’s phenomenal writing but it’s just so emotionally dark and twisted that we had to put it down several times.”"

Andrew Lincoln was equally affected reading it. He was late to work because of it. (Via Entertainment Weekly)

"“I felt sick to my stomach when I read the script. It was the first day in the whole six years of working on The Walking Dead that I was late for work because I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was so angry and frustrated and I felt sick. And that was just after reading it.”"

Lauren Cohan says she didn’t want to go to work that day. She said it took a long time for the cast to recover from the episode.Like Andy, she talks about a physical reaction to the finale.  (Via Entertainment Weekly)

"“[Hearing] the word ‘finale’ gives me a physical reaction because it’s the hardest day on set that I’ve ever had in my life. I never even imagined that as an actor you could have that experience. It’s one of the most raw experiences that I think any of us have ever had. Andy talks about being late to work; I didn’t want to go to work that day. It took a really, really long time for everybody to feel okay again after the finale, let’s put it that way.”"

Melissa McBride is the latest in actors to weigh in on reading the script for the finale. Her reaction is consistent with that of the others. (Via Comicbook.com)

"“It was so very dark. I couldn’t say anything after I had finished reading it. I felt like I had dropped into a blackhole.”"

Where we stand now, Carol and Maggie have been kidnapped by Polly, the redhead and some others outside the Savior compound. We don’t know for sure if this little group is connected to the Saviors or not.

Our group has just taken out the Saviors inside this compound, but as audience members, we know that Negan was not there and we can surmise that with that gigantic satellite, Negan’s group may be much larger than Rick, Alexandria and Hilltop ever anticipated.

Next: Characters most likely to die in 6B

But it’s still the apocalypse. They can’t be too advanced as far as technology. We still have a chance to win the war. But as Maggie told Rick on the porch at Hilltop, “It’s going to cost us something.” What and how much we may only begin to find out as season 6 comes to a close.