Yahoo News What's next for The Walking Dead? Season 8 spoilers
The Walking Dead's most divisive season in the history of the show ended with Alexandria, Hilltop and The Kingdom teaming up against Negan's Saviors.
The stage has been set: it's all-out war in season eight, kicking off on Sunday 22 Oct.
But what is this "all-out war" arc that the comics' fans are so excited about? What loose threads from season seven could be resolved? And does Negan die?
Please note that we will be describing SPOILERS from the comics, although there is no guarantee that any of this will happen in the TV series.
1. The war could last the whole season
In the comics, the battle between Rick and Negan spans 12 issues – two whole volumes, titled All Out War, Parts One and Two – and given the show's history of padding out arcs from the comics, we can imagine the two halves mapped to seasons 8A and 8B.
The comics didn't have Jadis's Scavengers, an extra complication that Rick's army has to navigate. Allied with Negan, they provide a fresh and very different threat to the Saviors.
And then there's Oceanside. This community does exist in the comics, but had nothing to do with Negan, the Saviors, or the war.
The TV version of Oceanside is very different. They suffered huge loss against the Saviors, and they have played an active role by giving Alexandria all of their guns. Their leader Natania was against it, but could Oceanside be persuaded to fight?
With the Scavengers and Oceanside both in the picture, a whole season of all-out war seems plausible.
2. Rick gathers his forces – but first tries to offer Negan a truce
"You can't have a war without casualties" – Rick, Issue 115.
Ominous. But in the comics, Rick starts off trying to prevent bloodshed by giving Negan a chance to accept a truce.
Rick heads to the Sanctuary alongside Jesus and King Ezekiel, accompanied with a large number of troops. On arrival, he fires two shots into the air to get Negan's attention.
What follows is a tense confrontation between Rick and Negan.
Negan, as you'd expect, laughs the truce off.
"So you've actually convinced yourself that your group of accountants and lawyers and farmers and teachers is going to be able to tear these walls down and actually accomplish something if they get inside?" he taunts. "That's f**king rich."
But just as Rick is about to give the go-ahead for their plan, Negan has a trick up his sleeve...
3. Gregory is with Negan at the Sanctuary
This moment from the comics is likely to happen on the TV show, purely because the TV show has been setting it up.
You may remember in episode 14 this season, Simon gave Gregory instructions on how to get to the Sanctuary. And you may remember in episode 15, after suffering another humiliating moment as leader, Gregory and his underling Kal set off on a trip, presumably to Negan's base.
In the comics, Negan brings Gregory out in front of Rick's militia, and coerces Gregory to tell the Hilltop contingent to back off.
But when only eight men from Rick's forces leave and he realises that Gregory had exaggerated how many Hilltop members made up the numbers, Negan fumes at the "pathetic" leader and kicks him off the roof.
Don't worry. Gregory's fine.
4. Rick's real plan – a swarm of walkers
Rick knew that Negan was never likely going to accept his truce offer – which is why his real plan is to use gunfire to draw a horde of walkers to overrun the Sanctuary.
"I hope you have your shitting pants on," Negan tells Dwight.
We won't go into more detail here, but we reckon subsequent events could last a good few episodes to kick off the start of season eight in style.
5. But what about Eugene? Is he really Team Negan?
Ah, Eugene.
In the comics, Eugene gets captured during the war – ie later than in the TV narrative. He proved to be a key member in Rick's team, manufacturing ammo, before being taken prisoner and being asked to do the same by Negan – but for the Saviors.
We can probably expect Eugene to be ordered to make bullets for Negan in the TV show.
In the comics, Eugene eventually does escape with help from Dwight and Doctor Carson (that is, the roasted and dead Doctor Carson in the TV show... not the Hilltop doc). But it's a very different dynamic in the TV show, because Eugene doesn't need to be rescued.
Or does he?
Negan showed in the season seven finale that he's grown a little bit suspicious of Eugene when he asked how Sasha could have possibly died. So who knows? Maybe Eugene will find himself in a cell soon enough.
6. What happened to Heath?
One of the biggest loose ends from season seven that we're still not over is, where the heck is Heath?
This is one storyline we can't glean any knowledge of from the comics.
But we're hopeful that the stars will align and Corey Hawkins will be able to reprise his role as the Alexandria survivor – who vanished without a trace – and we can finally get an answer to what that "PPP" keycard Tara found on the ground actually means.
But it won't be in Season 8. Showrunner Scott Gimple has confirmed that while his arc is not complete, he won't appear in this season.
7. Rick vs Negan – how the war ends
The war lasts for quite a while, so we're going to jump past a bunch of comics material and some really good twists and turns. You probably want to know if we'll finally see Negan die at the hands of Rick at the end of this arc.
The answer? If the TV show remains faithful to the comics, it seems Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be sticking around for far, far longer.
In the comics, Negan thinks Dwight has killed Rick in the final battle at Hilltop, but he couldn't have been more wrong.
Dwight reveals his true loyalty is with Rick, much to Negan's shock. Rick, now on top, slashes Negan's throat... but doesn't kill him, instead locking him up in a cell in Alexandria.
Ring any bells?
Why, yes. Morgan built a cell in Alexandria back in season six. How convenient. Recently on the TV show, it got some use as Dwight was held there at the start of episode 16.
The show will probably follow the same direction as the comics with Negan, given that the writers have already introduced the jail cell.
8. Death predictions for season eight
Aaron's boyfriend Eric, Hilltop guard Kal and Shiva the tiger better watch out, because they all die during the all-out war in the comics.
Shiva's death has been hinted at in season eight trailer footage which debuted at Comic-Con, as she is seen surrounded by walkers.
In the comics, she gets overwhelmed by a swarm of zombies as she sacrifices her life to help Ezekiel escape. Ezekiel is heartbroken over this loss.
There will undoubtedly be other casualties along the way. The comics version of Richard dies, but in the TV series he's already dead, which means somebody else close to Ezekiel will probably bite it in his place (please let it not be Jerry!).
If the show plans to take out a major character, Morgan could very well be in trouble.
Lennie James's character is currently outliving his comics counterpart, so offing him would be no problem. Furthermore, with Rick's determination to kill Negan, something has to change for the Alexandria leader to spare him instead.
This is where Morgan could come in, with his "life is precious" philosophy.
Obviously he's turned away from it in recent episodes, but it wouldn't surprise us if he inspires Rick to not take Negan's life – and lock him up in the jail cell that Morgan built.
9. After the war
If the all-out war lasts one whole season, then we may get a glimpse of a time jump in the closing moments of the finale to set up and build up hype for season nine.
Yes, that's right. In the comics, after Negan is taken down, the story leaps ahead a few years, and everyone is... happy?
All of the communities – Alexandria, Hilltop, The Kingdom, and The Sanctuary – have rebuilt civilisation and are flourishing together as part of a network. (We would assume that Oceanside would be in this network too in the TV series.)
A time jump has been teased as much in the season eight first-look trailer – as the last shot sees Old Man Rick lying in bed.
Of course, the happiness doesn't last forever...
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