'The Walking Dead' says it's not going to try this trick again at the end of next season
"I think as a creative person I have to acknowledge that all responses are valid, so I definitely have to take note that there's a seemingly significant portion of the audience that wasn't happy with that direction," "The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman told Entertainment Weekly in a new interview.
"So in that respect I think everyone on 'The Walking Dead' creative team has taken note of that, and I don't know that I would expect a similar cliffhanger at the end of season seven," he continued.
The uproar was the result of the show's decision not to reveal which major character was killed by its new "big bad," Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) on the season-six finale.
At the same time, Kirkman wants fans to know that the decision to end with a cliffhanger was made to keep fans engaged with the show.
"You get to season six on a show and you try new things and sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't," the show creator said. "But I would hope that after enjoying six seasons of the show people would recognize that, everything that [showrunner] Scott Gimple is putting together is an effort to keep the show exciting, and engaging, and keeping everybody excited about it."
The seventh season of "The Walking Dead" kicks off on Sunday, October 23, at 9 p.m.