AMCWe've got a feeling that Andrew Lincoln is ready for it to be October already.
In a new interview, the star of The Walking Dead has finally addressed the backlash the show received after it left fans in the dark with a season six cliffhanger that failed to identify the character on the receiving end of Negan's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) brutal baseball bat beatdown.
"I love the fact that everybody is so engaged with it and so opinionated about it. I think it's a great energy that we feed off," he told EW, remaining as diplomatic as possible. "I mean, obviously we don't want a divided reaction every time we do something as a season finale because then we'd start to be concerned, but we value and respect everybody's opinion because without it we wouldn't be here."
As Lincoln sees it, if fans hadn't been privy to the comic book source material, they might not have been as upset by the creative decision to leave them in the dark for months and months. But, he wants to remind fans that the show will always be doing its own thing. "I know everybody's excited. I know that there is a very vocal, a very opinionated, fervent fanbase that know the comics and can't wait to get to certain characters and places. But we're doing a different thing," he said. "Of course it is the same world and we want to honor it, but at the same time I would urge people not to open the presents on Christmas Eve because they're going to have such a better day amongst all the other peoples and their faces opening it together."
While he respects those who didn't love the choices made, Lincoln admitted that the sheer volume of people who try to pry secrets out of him on a daily basis make it pretty clear, to him at least, that the cliffhanger did exactly what it was intended to do.
"Every time I leave my house. Every time I go through customs. Every time they are checking my belt going through the security, everybody's going, 'Please tell me. Just tell me. Just whisper, who is it? Is it you? Why are you in England at the moment? What are you doing here? Why are you not working or filming?' and all of that. It's hilarious. Absolutely insane," he said. "So, part of me just goes, well, it's people talking for a considerable amount of time. Whether you love it or hate it, it has kept people talking."
Are you still upset about the cliffhanger? Sound off in the comments below.
The Walking Dead returns for season seven on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 9 p.m. on AMC.