Walking Dead director and SFX master Greg Nicotero has been on board the AMC series since the very beginning. He became excited about the project after reading the source material, Robert Kirkman's comic story, and the first draft of the script.
Nicotero, who co-owns the Nic & Norman's chain of restaurants with Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon), ranks the season 5 premiere, "No Sanctuary," and the season 1 Night of the Living Dead homage episode, "No Way Out," as two of the strongest in the entire series.
In an interview with Comicbook.com, Nicotero discussed "No Sanctuary" on the 10th anniversary of the episode's release. The episode is one of The Walking Dead's highest-ranked episodes and overall is the most-watched episode of the entire eleven seasons.
Walking Dead - "No Sanctuary"
Episode 501 of The Walking Dead is set at Terminus, the community of cannibals, and gets its title as a response to the Terminus slogan “Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive survive.” Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his group quickly learn that this community is anything but a sanctuary, and few, if any, survive.
The episode was written by TWD Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple, with Nicotero directing. The director has stated that this episode was "one of the most gratifying experiences" he has ever had. He remembers the conversation with Gimple where they discussed the trough sequence, and added the bat "as a tip to Negan's impending arrival a couple seasons later."
Soon after Rick declares "they are screwing with the wrong people," he, along with Glenn (Steven Yeun), Daryl, and Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) are lined up at a bloody trough with two of the Terminus butchers ready to bash them in the head with a bat and bleed them. Nicotero reflects on the brutality of the scene stating that the scene is "probably the most harrowing first 10 minutes of an episode, and we got away with it.”
The episode was so iconic as it gave nods to several TWD elements, including Negan's bat, Glenn's death, Carol's time at The Grove, and ep. 102 "Guts." This episode was also the first to feature a post credit scene which reintroduced Morgan Jones (Lennie James) to the story. He finds the Terminus sign that Rick writes "No Sanctuary" on a few weeks after the group departed the community.
As gruesome as the episode was, it ended in a beautiful reunion of Carol with the main group, and Rick and Carl (Chandler Riggs) with Judith, who was saved by Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) when the prison fell.
"I mean, I’m shocked at what we got away with. We shot that episode in nine days, 10 days. I don’t even know how we did it, but we did it. And it really was just a great experience seeing all those stories applied in that particular episode."Greg Nicotero
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