After the brutal and bloody premiere violence of the seventh season of The Walking Dead, the producers of the show have decided to tone down the violence after receiving complaints.
New villain Negan’s disturbing killing spree that kicked off events of the show’s latest season was seen as a step too far and wholly unnecessary by many fans. And the backlash was apparently enough to convince the producers of the zombie mega hit to soften things up for the rest of season seven.
Speaking at a NATPE conference Wednesday night, as reported by Variety, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd said regarding the season’s course correction, “We were able to look at the feedback on the level of violence… We did tone it down for episodes we were still filming for later on in the season”.
Hurd wanted to make clear that “This is not a show that is torture porn” and that they didn’t’ want to cross the line with regards to violence.
SEE ALSO: The Walking Dead executive producer discusses the graphic violence of the season 7 premiere
The Walking Dead hasn’t exactly become tame since the criticism but there has definitely not been anything like Negan’s baseball bat rampage that permeated so many conversations at the time, so this news isn’t overtly shocking.
The Walking Dead returns for the second part of season seven on February 12th.
Originally published January 18, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
