Last week, The Walking Dead executive producer Gale Anne Hurd spoke about the criticism towards the graphic violence of the season seven premiere, suggesting that subsequent episodes had been toned down in order to prevent further backlash from some sections of the fanbase. Well, it seems that may not be the case after all, with Hurd’s fellow executive producers Scott Gimple and Greg Nicotero offering an alternative account during a chat with Entertainment Weekly.
“The violence in the premiere was pronounced for a reason,” said showrunner Gimple. “The awfulness of what happened to the characters was very specific to that episode and the beginning of this whole new story. I don’t think like that’s the base level of violence that necessarily should be on the show. It should be specific to a story and a purpose, and there was a purpose of traumatizing these characters to a point where maybe they would have been docile for the rest of their lives, which was Negan’s point. But I will say again, the violence in the premiere was for a specific narrative purpose, and I would never say that that’s the baseline amount of violence that we would show on the show. If we’re ever going to see something that pronounced, there needs to be a specific narrative purpose for it.”
“No,” added Nicotero, when asked whether there had been a push to tone down the violence. “As brutal as that episode 1 was, it’s still part of our storytelling bible, which is what the world is about. I don’t think we would ever edit ourselves, and I think — even after looking at that episode 1 again — as tough as it was for people to watch, I don’t think we would have done it any differently. I don’t think we’ll ever pull ourselves back. There is definitely a difference between violence against walkers and human on human violence, but truthfully, we’re serving our story.”
The Walking Dead returns from its midseason break on February 12th.
Originally published January 24, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
