This Sunday night, AMC will air the return of The Walking Dead with the ninth episode of the seventh season called “Rock in the Road.” The official description of the episode reads that “Rick is introduced to a new community,” as the usual hype among the premiere is present in fans all over the world.

In the synopsis given by AMC, Rick Grimes will face the discovery of new communities in the series. The primary objective for him will be a meeting with King Ezekiel, who is part of the Kingdom. The leader of the apocalypse along with members of the Alexandria band will try to align with the Kingdom to fight Negan and his Saviors. How will the story be if Rick convinces King Ezekiel, his tiger Shiva, and his whole army to fight together?

King Ezekiel and his tiger Shiva. Image credit: AMC
King Ezekiel and his tiger Shiva. Image credit: AMC

One of the challenges Rick and his people will have to struggle with is the lack of food, weapons, and soldiers, as it’s a fact that cannot be underestimated.

“We’ll meet new survivors in incredible places. We’ll see Rick and the group tested in ways we’ve never seen before. We’ll see treachery from people we trust.  Rick is confident as he will see his group and many others band together with the common goal of taking down Negan.  But no amount of planning will prepare the group for all-out war with Negan and his army,” the official synopsis for the rest of season 7 reads.

Show ratings: How is The Walking Dead doing?

Even when The Walking Dead does not particularly have bad rating registers, the show’s developers are orienting their efforts to regain the fanbase that the series once accomplished. After seven seasons, the show is not currently enjoying the impressive ratings they had in the past. However, this does not translate into the show having low viewership.

The last midseason finale had about 10.58 million viewers, with 6.53 million in the 18-49 demographic, which are much better numbers than the majority of shows. And even when a substantial part of their fanbase is having troubles with how the series is evolving, the number of people who watch the show still is important.

Image credit: Skybound Youtube Channel
Image credit: Skybound Youtube Channel

Some curious unknown facts about the show

The website Fansided compiled a series of unknown curious facts about The Walking Dead as many persons who watch the show are not aware of the considerable differences between what happens on the show and what’s going on in the comics.

About some of the character deaths, there are interesting things like the real reasons for the death of T-Dog and Dale. In the first case, it is rumored that the actor IronE Singleton was extremely demanding with the crew as he also arrived late to many of the shootings. In the comics, the character that is supposed to die instead of T-Dog is Carol, and many watchers are relieved about how the show did not go in that direction.

In the case of Dale, the actor Jeffrey DeMunn asked personally to the developers of the series for them to kill off his character. This desire of abandoning the show came after his friend and former frontrunner Frank Darabont was fired during Season 2.

Source: ComicBook