"From the comic books, the thing I really liked is that the world expands and you meet all these different communities. And each community is different -- they're benevolent, they're oppressive -- but they're described by the leader and how they set up their own philosophies and ideology. And so you have these collisions of ideas and peoples and the world just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and cooler and more exciting. And if we follow the comic book, then there's a super badass conflict between Negan and us, and I think that's certainly something that I think will trump anything we've attempted before in the show."

What does he mean by that super badass conflict?

*Comic book spoilers ahead*

He definitely means All Out War. The epic storyline, covered in two volumes of the comic, covers the war between Negan & The Saviors vs.vRick & his militia, including Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom. For once, it probably isn't just hyperbolic hype to think that conflict will trump anything they've attempted on the show thus far. All Out War should be epic to the extreme. But will we see it in Season 7? Probably not. The show is now filming the second half, and it sounds like the pieces will just be put together this season, for larger conflict later in Season 8. Maybe even continuing into Season 9?

None of that will ease the pain of the cliffhanger reveal, which is set to break hearts (and potentially frustrate fans even further) when Season 7 begins Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

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