AMC
The latest sneak peek at Season 7 of "The Walking Dead" shifts focus away from the big bad Negan and onto the mysterious new location called The Kingdom.
Led by King Ezekiel (newcomer Khary Payton) and his trusty tiger sidekick Shiva, the locale looks to be a potential safe haven for any survivors who survive the wrath of Lucille.
"We've been looking for you," the ruler says in the trailer, seemingly to Morgan (Lennie James), who -- along with Carol (Melissa McBride) -- was taken to the Kingdom by some soldiers in the Season 6 finale.
We get glimpses of walkers, Tara (Alanna Masterson) running through the woods solo, Jesus (Tom Payne) being a badass and one of Ezekiel's followers ominously telling Morgan, "No one back home needs to know about this, any of it." James' character is also heard saying, "I can't let you die out there."
Payton opened up about his dreadlocked character in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, explaining how the so-called "King" sees the undead.
"He's in the business of not losing himself to his surroundings. I love even his relationship with the zombies themselves. He's a guy who doesn't think of them as having a physical disease. It's more that their joy was robbed from them, and that he's one of the few people left on earth whose joy hasn't been robbed, and to him, that's the difference between the living and the dead," he says. "If you're still human, but you're letting your joy be taken away from you, you might as well be one of those mindless creatures walking all over. So to him, it's kind of a weird philosophy of life that he's developed living in this apocalypse that you don't let this world turn you into something that you're not."
As for Morgan and Carol potentially joining his character's squad, it seems likely.
"I think he sees potential in them. He sees potential in them for understanding his way of living and spreading this gospel of joy and light in a dark situation," adds Payton. "I think he considers his Kingdom a lighthouse, and if you use it the right way, it'll keep you from crashing on the rocks."
We'll see how the new season shakes up -- and who Negan offs -- when it premieres on AMC on October 23.
