We had to wait almost half a year until the zombies were within our grasp again, but soon it will finally be time and the 7th season of «The Walking Dead» will start! For the premiere of Season 7, FOX is offering a special service: The first episode will be shown in the original language once at 1:4.00 a.m. So if you want to avoid spoilers, set your alarm clock very early. All other episodes will then be broadcast regularly on Mondays at 21.00:XNUMX p.m. We have summarized the most important information, speculation and news for you here.

Finally the time of waiting is almost over. Season 7 of The Walking Dead starts in a few hours. Shortly after the US premiere, German fans can also enjoy the new episodes. You already forgot what happened in the last scenes? Then there's the refresher one Fast forward from John Cleese or one of us, the final episodes of Season 6: After Rick and his people wipe out a Saviors camp, they think the new enemy is vanquished and defeated. Life in Alexandria goes on normally. Suddenly there are complications with pregnant Maggie (Lauren Cohan). They want to get her to Hilltop as soon as possible, where there is a trained doctor who can help her. But on the way there, members of the Saviors suddenly block the streets - more than anyone has ever seen.

Ultimately, Rick and his people fall into a Saviors trap. Finally, leader Negan shows up for the first time (with his baseball bat Lucille. He informs them that he will teach them a lesson by killing one of them. A total of eleven main characters kneel before Negan at this point: Glenn, Rosita, Daryl , Michonne, Abraham, Maggie, Rick, Sasha, Aaron, Carl and Eugene. The finale ends with Negan swinging his baseball bat and killing one of the characters. Who? That was the big puzzle of the last few months. More would like to test beforehand when it hits the 1st episode of season 7, take our quiz.

Meanwhile, both Greg Nicotero and actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan have confirmed that there will be more than one victim in the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead. Besides the character he beat to death in the finale, there is another loss for Rick's people. So fans have to mentally prepare for the fact that the comeback of the zombie series will start with the loss of several main characters. A somber season opener that will leave our group of survivors utterly heartbroken. Four women are among the eleven main characters who have to tremble for their lives. Nevertheless, many fans and long-standing "Walking Dead" experts agree that we do not have to worry about the survival of the female characters. Comic readers agree that Negan is cruel, but wouldn't kill a woman in this situation.

AMC released almost three minutes from the first episode, which mainly shows a conversation between Rick and Negan - shortly after the gruesome murder. Rick swears to Negan that sooner or later he will kill him. Then Negan grabs an ax and drags Rick into the trailer. Is he losing his hand now? This rumor spread like wildfire across the web. Because even in the comics, Rick loses a hand, but through the governor and not through Negan. Then the gaze of the camera wanders over a bloody mass on the floor. Nearby is Daryl's blanket. In the end you realize it's not just blood - it's the remains of a head. The other survivors are obviously so shocked that you can hardly hear them in the background. The whimpers and screams have almost completely stopped. Negan has won, ushering in a dark 1th season of the zombie series.

The Walking Dead - New Season 7 sneak peek!

According to various rumors, Abraham will be the first character to be killed. We already saw his death briefly in the cliffhanger. Another character will die soon after. Daryl disobeys Negan and is cruelly killed: Negan kills another character - because of Daryl's disobedience. This character is said to be Glenn of all people who is beaten to death in front of Maggie. In the comics for «The Walking Dead» there is only one dead person in this situation: Glenn. Therefore, after the cliffhanger, many fans were sure that Negan killed him. Apparently, this assumption should come true – albeit with a slight delay. If the leak rumors are true, Abraham dies first. Glenn's death is said to be based on the comic book. In addition to a last call for Maggie, the scene should be similarly graphic and brutal. The faint-hearted viewers should better keep their eyes shut here.

If Rick doesn't lose his hand, what does that little speech about the "right hand" really mean? To do this we have to take a step back, look at the group and decide who is Rick's right hand man among the survivors. Most fans would probably answer Daryl Dixon or Glenn at this point. If this assumption is correct, Negan's speech also makes sense: Daryl is - we know this from the filming - taken to the Sanctuary, so Rick would lose an important man at his side. And if the rumors are true that Glenn is killed by Negan, as in the comics, two longtime friends and advisors have disappeared as "right hands". There are also indications that we will meet another group of enemies in Season 7: The Whisperers. Speculations about the introduction of this hostile faction are not new. Already when the trailer was released, it was rumored that the Whisperers could be seen. There is also a casting call for another leader to appear in the new episodes. And now the Instagram picture (see below).

But what does the picture have to do with the whisperers? In the comics, they kidnap a number of Alexandrians and not only kill them, they also decapitate their victims and impale the severed heads. Of course we don't want to name names here, but the Whisperers are responsible for the deaths of several "Walking Dead" main characters. So Negan isn't the only threat lurking outside the walls of Alexandria for the survivors. «The Whisperers» is a group of cold-blooded killers that are synonymous with the «Wolves» we met in Season 6. They're a cult of sorts, wearing the walkers' skin as masks, allowing them to walk and live beneath them. They got their name because they only talk in whispers - if they spoke too loudly to each other, they could attract the zombies' attention. They are led by a woman named Alpha.

The Walking Dead - Season 7 - Comic-Con Trailer

AMC has also released a recap of the new season. This gives us a taste of what's in store for zombie apocalypse survivors in the future. You can find the English original on «Comicbook.com«. Freely translated here:

Up to this point, our characters have survived conflict ... disease, hunger, hundreds of the undead, tragedy, betrayal and unimaginable loss. That made them formidable. Powerful. Unstoppable. At the start of Season 7, this power will be taken from them. You have found security and stability. You made a home. They thought the world was theirs. They thought they knew the world. You were wrong. The first half of season 7 shows our group broken, shattered, mourned and how they pick up the broken pieces while they live in oppression from now on.

Negan has successfully brought survivors under his control and, by brutal means and a deadly and cruel example of what happens when they resist, convinced them to live by his rules. Other characters don't know what happened because they were separated from the group through an incident or of their own accord - they will learn that they, too, cannot escape this new turn in their world. This half of the season is about these characters who have to start over. The overall theme of the season is "starting over". The world is not what they thought it was. It's bigger and more dangerous.

The second paragraph in particular seems to allude to Carol, Morgan, Heath and Tara who have been separated from the original group. But they too cannot escape the violence and influence of the Saviors and Negan. It's going to be a grim season for the characters we've been accompanying in their struggle for survival since 2010.