Bloody good return for The Walking Dead Season Seven

THE Walking Dead is back on Monday but not all of our heroes are expected to survive the looming war with Negan ...

THE Walking Dead is back on our screens from Monday and the second half of Season Seven is set to be explosive — and quite bloody for at least some of the characters.

The first half of the season ended with Rick Grimes and co finally getting their act together to tackle Negan and the Saviors.

But it’s not going to be an All-Out War just yet.

Rick hasn’t even met Ezekiel yet.

Rick hasn’t met Ezekiel yet, nor does he know that Carol and Morgan are hanging out there.

Plus there is Oceanside and its oceans of guns, which Tara knows about but hasn’t shared yet.

And we haven’t even begun to talk about Gregory, the sort-of leader of The Hilltop, a man who makes a slimy weasel look like a paragon of virtue. He won’t want to fight and he has already tried to betray Maggie. Obviously Maggie is going to take over The Hilltop ... is she going to ride to the rescue of Rick, in the same way Sansa rode to the rescue of Jon Snow in the battle Of The Bastards in Game Of Thrones?

Let’s hope so!

Rick and co will have to persuade Gregory to find a backbone to take on Negan.

Plus the mysterious character in the groovy boots is still wandering around and needs to make themselves known to the Safe Zone.

Are they from Oceanside? AMC has released an intriguing picture (below) which shows Rick talking to a group of women. He isn’t wearing his gun belt. Is that woman in the patterned hoody with her back to camera our boots-wearer? And is that Tara just in the foreground?

Somehow these disparate groups must come together and form an army to tackle the might of Negan.

This mysterious still from Season 7 has intrigued fans. Is this Rick chatting to the gun-toting ladies of Oceanside?

In the immortal words of New Zealand-born shampoo model and former Mrs Rod Stewart Rachel Hunter: “It won’t heppen uvernight but it wull heppen”.

The final battles won’t take place until season eight, especially given that Jeffrey Dean Morgan is lined up to play Negan during season eight.

However, in any battle there will be deaths and there are a couple of characters who should feel nervous.

Beware! We are entering into possible spoiler alert territory here!

It’s time for our heroes to rise up and take on Negan.

First up is Heath, last seen surrounded by Walkers when Tara went over the bridge and ended up in Oceanside.

It was a good time for him to take a break as his alter ego Corey Hawkins is about to hit our TV screens as the lead character in 24:Legacy.

Corey Hawkins as Eric in 24: Legacy, looking a world away from Heath with no dreadlocks.

If that is a hit, then his character Eric Carter will probably make a few more of these intensive series, making it very difficult for Hawkins to reprise his role as Heath.

Producers can either replace him or kill him off. And I think we all know which way they tend to go ...

In even more danger is Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green). She’s had a pretty rough trot, losing lover Bob and brother Tyreese, then her mind for good measure. She finally gets it together and new boyfriend Abraham has his head beaten in by Negan.

But the real danger is Martin-Green is the new lead in Star Trek: Discovery as Commander Rainsford.

Now Sonequa Martin-Green has been cast in Star Trek: Discovery, will Sasha die, the way that Abraham’s comicbook girlfriend Holly dies in The Walking Dead comics?

Then you need to add in what happens in the comics. While they are not a foolproof guide to the TV show, they do offer hints. And Sasha’s comic equivalent (Abraham’s girlfriend Holly) meets an unpleasant end at the hands of Negan.

Add those two together and you have a probably dramatic ending to season seven, with the most likely finale being the first of a series of battles between Negan and our heroes.

It all starts on Monday on Foxtel’s FX at 1.30pm express from the US and again at 7.30pm.