‘Walking Dead’s’ Andrew Lincoln Defends ‘Shocking’ Season 6 Finale Cliffhanger

“A guttural reaction, an upset, that’s the point of drama,” Lincoln tells TheWrap

the walking dead andrew lincoln season 6 finale negan
AMC

(Spoiler alert: Do not keep reading if you have not seen the Season 6 Finale of “The Walking Dead”)

“The Walking Dead” fans are still smoldering over the cliffhanger ending of the Season 6 finale, but series star Andrew Lincoln thinks the episode did exactly what it was supposed to do.

“I’m sorry the fans are angry about it because I think it’s a very thrilling and shocking way to leave a season,” Lincoln told TheWrap. “People have four or five months to recover from that. And conversely, from a writing standpoint, it’s daring what they’re doing. As a returning episode, to kill one of us to start the season? It’s not the usual way one would start off as a writer.”

But Lincoln also said he understands why the fans are upset, but cautions that any reaction to a dramatic work is an important one.

“People are well within their rights to feel whatever they want,” he said. “If they feel robbed, it’s a completely valid thing. But a guttural reaction, an upset, that’s the point of drama. I don’t go to a theater or movie and not feel things. I want to feel things.”

In Sunday’s episode, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) made his long awaited debut. Lincoln says that working with Morgan was a real pleasure despite their characters’ hatred for one another.

“It’s an amazing entrance. What he did was so brilliant,” Lincoln said. “Obviously, I hated him during it. I sort of bore holes into his very heart for two nights.”

“But it’s an astonishing entrance by all accounts. He’s this phenomenally accomplished brilliant actor and he came and he brought it. He knocked it out of the park–which is a sloppy expression here given the events of the episode,” he said with a laugh.

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