The seventh season of The Walking Dead had quite the body-count. Along with Game of Thrones, the show has a history of culling popular characters in favour of a shocking plot twist and last year the showrunners really went for it. The season premiere saw two fan favourites meet their maker at the hands of new character Negan’s baseball bat Lucille. Played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan made one Hell of an impression as he offed both Glenn and Abraham, leaving audiences bereft. Then during the finale, we lost Sasha. Losing three big characters from the show has created a gap, but never fear, replacements are on the way…
The eighth season will begin shooting in May and will see three guest stars promoted to series regulars. Get ready to see a lot more of Simon (Steven Ogg), Enid (Katelyn McIntosh) and Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). The season seven finale saw Rick and his team take the fight to Negan as they went into war with the help of Jadis and her people. In a dramatic twist Jadis and her clan turned coat and sided with Negan, but somehow Rick and his people managed to come out on top – that tiger clearly helped.
Season eight will see Rick and his allies – the Hill Top and The Kingdom – engage in a bitter war with Negan. That explains the bigger role for Simon, who is described as Negan’s right-hand man, and Enid, who along with Maggie, is a pivotal member of Hill Top. Last we saw Jadis, she was running away, after realising that Negan had lost the upper hand. Given the promotion, we can only assume that she has something up her sleeve.
The Walking Dead will return to screens on both sides of the Atlantic sometime in October, a date is still to be fully confirmed.
