Negan Kills Multiple People in The Walking Dead Season Seven Premiere, Says Jeffrey Dean Morgan

As if there were any doubt that The Walking Dead’s season seven premiere is going to be a bloody affair, Negan himself, Mr. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, has revealed that his super-villainous character will take multiple lives when the blockbuster zombie drama returns to TV.

“Negan’s not just going to kill one person in [the premiere],” Morgan said in an interview with Den of Geek. “He’s not afraid of bashing in skulls.”

Given that his character is about to gruesomely dispatch at least one member of the beloved Grimes Gang, plus goodness knows who else, it stands to reason that Morgan is concerned with how fans may feel about him:

It’s a definite concern. I did some ADR yesterday for [episode one], and I saw a little bit of [the episode]. It’s a lot. I’ll be interested to see how the fans handle it. It’s going to be a lot more than the people are expecting. You’re about to see someone that you love just fucking take it. It’s violent. It’s more than violent. It’s gut-wrenching.

The Walking Dead’s season six finale cliffhanger was widely derided when it aired, Paste’s review included. The episode spent its entire 65-minute runtime building up to a core character’s death at the end of Negan’s barbed-wire-wrapped bat, stopping just short of revealing the victim.

But after the anger subsided, viewers everywhere were left only with the gnawing hunger for answers. Many picked apart season seven teasers in search of any kind of clue, while others took more drastic measures to get at the truth.

Though the cliffhanger was a cheap trick, it’s hard to argue with the resonance that all-consuming question—“Who did Negan kill?—has had. Soon enough, we’ll get an answer.

The Walking Dead returns Sunday, Oct. 23, at 9 p.m. EST on AMC. Brace yourselves.