Scott Gimple discusses the communities for season 7B of The Walking Dead

AMC released a new teaser for The Walking Dead season 7B. In it showrunner Scott Gimple talks about how the communities deal with Negan and the Saviors and how they fit into the larger world.

In a new video released on Tuesday, The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple gives an overview of how each of the communities has been dealing with Negan. Understanding the arrangements that each of these communities has with Negan is going to be important for Rick.

Alexandria is under the most pressure from Negan and The Saviors. So, while Alexandria is ready to rise up and fight back, the other communities may not be. It’s Rick’s reluctance to live under Negan’s rule that caused Negan to be so aggressive with Rick’s group. After finding out what happened to Alexandria some of the other communities that have relatively peaceful arrangements with the Saviors might not want to risk the wrath of Negan like Rick has.

Gimple explains in the video that Negan has taken a special interest in Alexandria because Rick and the survivors have really been the only group to outright challenge him. Rick and the group slaughtered the Saviors at the outpost. Carl killed more Saviors when he snuck into Sanctuary. Daryl has now escaped.

Even though Rick has been obedient the group still isn’t as subservient as Negan wants.  He definitely doesn’t want that attitude spreading through the other communities. Hilltop has already been on the receiving end of a not so subtle message from the Saviors about disobeying. Gregory isn’t exactly the kind of leader to make a stand. So Rick will need to approach each group very carefully.

Where The Communities Stand With Negan

Scott Gimple describes that communities as a wheel, with Negan at the center. Negan has a huge community at Sanctuary. He has a very large and well equipped army. But each of the individual communities in The Walking Dead world deal with the Saviors a little differently.

Hilltop has defied the Saviors before when Gregory made that deal with Rick. And he got a loud and clear message warning him not to do that again. Gregory is going to let the Saviors take whatever they want and just hope that he keeps his head intact. And as long as the Saviors get what they want they leave the people of Hilltop alone.

The Kingdom has probably the best relationship with the Saviors. King Ezekiel is a shrewd leader. He wants to keep the Kingdom as free from outside realities as possible. So he and a few of his fighters drop off goods to the Saviors on an arranged schedule.

As long as they deliver everything the Saviors want the Saviors don’t even go inside Kingdom. Most of the people in Kingdom don’t even know about the Saviors. So Kingdom definitely has the most to lose if they join the survivors and lose the war.

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Oceanside at this point has no dealings with the Saviors. They work very hard to stay as isolated as possible. But is that sustainable? Probably not. As the Saviors push the boundaries of their territory and continue looking for new communities it’s only a matter of time before they find Oceanside. Staying off the grid might not be an option for Oceanside much longer.

An Uneasy Peace

Negan will never leave Alexandria in peace. He’s already killed Glenn, Abe, Spencer and Olivia. He’s not going to let up on Rick. But the other communities have managed to create an uneasy peace with the Saviors that has let them continue their lives with minimal disruption.

As Richard from the Kingdom point out though that peace isn’t going to last forever. At some point things will go bad for all the communities. It’s not possible to live without fighting in The Walking Dead world.

Next: 'Future': TWD season 7B video teaser

The relationships that these groups have with the Saviors will break down eventually. The only way for all the groups to be free is to join Alexandria and fight Negan. Rick’s going to have to convince them that if they want to survive they are going to have to fight.