All of this is on behalf of the audience, he tells us.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Were you surprised by the anger that some fans had to the cliffhanger?
Did that take you back a little bit?
Credit: Gene Page/AMC
SCOTT M. GIMPLE:I wasnt surprised.
Its a very passionate audience and I wasnt surprised that there was some of that.
I guess I was surprised howintensesome folks got.
I believe in what were doing.
And its very gratifying to me to see stories of people thinking and talking and positing and theorizing.
I think that aspect of it is wonderful.
Of course, we did not seek to make anybody angry.
But we are going to stretch and we are going to take risks on behalf of the audience.
All of this is on behalf of the audience.
It was all about expectations.
People were like, Oh, well, heres what happens when Negan arrives on the scene.
And I understand that.
Whats actually happening on the show to characters, we want them to feel it.
We want them to be surprised.
As Ive said a lot of times, its a remix.
Can you see how that may have been an issue for some?
The internet is a very specific demographic.
In the end, personally I dont know.
I suppose they do both have to do with loss.
But I think it is, in some ways, the opposite.
The dumpster story was somebodysurvivingsomething.
It was about a character getting tolive.
It was really to put the audience in the place of the people in Alexandria.
We didnt get to know what happened.
It looked like he died but it wasnt unlocked, it wasnt a certainty.
So, hopefully that story was like, Oh, somebody survived!
This is the opposite.
This is a story that promised death and takes them all out and everyone survives.
Its a very different story.
If someone is going to die, the other story was that someone would survive.
And the proof will be in the pudding, come October.
For moreWalking Deadscoop, follow Dalton on Twitter@DaltonRoss.
