Looks Like Rick's Group Is About To Get A Lot Smaller In Season 7

As the premiere to Season 7 of The Walking Dead draws nearer, eager fans have been biding their time by making theories on who Negan axes in the premiere. Everyone has their own theory and most are quite insightful, but they're just theories as they sit. However, the newest sneak peek released might have given away the answer to the question asked during the Season 6 Finale, who did Negan kill?

Within the clip, we see Negan talking to Rick and from the sound of their conversation, it's obvious that Rick is shocked by Negan's actions which in itself means Negan did something more shocking than anyone anticipated.

Originally, it was assumed Negan would only execute one member of Rick's group but after listening to Negan's dialogue in the clip, it indicates he may have killed more than one person; evident by this segment of dialogue.

"I'll be right back. Maybe Rick will be with me. If not, well, we can just turn these people inside out, won't we. I mean, the ones that are left."

Those last few words "the ones that are left" make the fact known that multiple members of Rick's group are now dead, and the ones left could be next to go. It had only been speculated until now, but after viewing this sneak peek and listening to Negan speak, it's clear that the main Walking Dead crew is going to get a lot smaller.

With that in mind, the question of who Negan kills is still posed as it stood at the end of Season 6. However, now that the notion of Negan having more than one victim is confirmed, we have an even bigger task at hand - in identifying the multiple victims.

We do however know two things when determining who these victims are. For one, one or both casualties are on the right side of Rick in the lineup. And two, several of the characters situated on Rick's right side have either been seen in promotional footage or seen filming on set - eliminating Daryl (Norman Reedus), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Rosita (Christian Esposito) from contention - narrowing down the possible candidates to Maggie, Glenn, and Abraham to meet Negan's bat Lucille.

Definitely either Maggie or Abraham

Within the sneak peek, we can see that Rick is sitting very close to the person who was executed by Negan. It's unclear how close said person was, but with the blood splatter on the right side of Rick's face indicating the victim was close to him, it means either Maggie or Abraham was executed by him. Michonne is within the splatter zone but she can be eliminated from contention as she's been seen filming on set; narrowing it down to two possible candidates, Abraham and Maggie.

For more evidence, we simply need to look at the last screenshot in the sneak peek, which shows that Negan's victim was sitting next to Rick and the only thing left of them is a bloody mess.

( Speculative, but some keen-eyed viewers have pointed out a shiny object in the mass of blood and brain splatter left in the victim's place, to which some have concluded that it was Maggie's wedding ring. Personally, I think it does look like Maggie's wedding ring. )

First Maggie, Then Glenn

If Negan does kill the person sitting next to Rick (indicated by the blood splatter on his face), that would mean Maggie is dead, along with her unborn child. In that scenario, Glenn's reaction to it all happening would see him rise up from his kneeling position, only to be maliciously murdered by Negan. Negan initially warned the group of having outbursts so if Glenn jumps up at the first sign of Negan putting the bat to Maggie, he'll likely wind up dead alongside Maggie.

Abraham, Maggie (by accident), then Glenn

Going back to the Season 6 finale where Negan begins hitting the unknown victim, he says something quite insignificant but it could mean much towards figuring out who his victim his. In that last scene where Negan starts hitting the first victim with his baseball bat, he says out loud.

"Wow, he's taking it like a champ"

Now accounting for the position of the victim being on the right side of Rick, along with Negan using the term "he", Negan could only be referring to three possible people and one can be immediately removed from contention.

As you can see, there are only two males that Negan could be referring to: Abraham or Daryl. It won't be Daryl due to the actor who portrays him, Norman Reedus, already being seen filming scenes for the rest of the season, which means Negan could only be referring to one person who would be "taking it like a champ," and that's Abraham. Abraham's the kind of guy that would take a swing from a bat and keep his head held high - for as long as he can.

Glenn is also on Rick's right side but he's too far away from Rick to have his blood splattered on Rick's face. However, Glenn could still die during the finale as well.

Seeing as how Abraham is probably the first one to meet Negan's bat, Negan could wind up taking an inadvertent swing at one of the people sitting close to Abraham - that being Maggie or Michonne. Michonne can be removed from contention to be executed since she's been seen in the latest trailer for Season 7 which only places Maggie in a potentially wide swing zone.

In the scenario of Negan accidentally hitting Maggie, it's not like he's going to stop. Negan doesn't care about Rick or his people, so if he finds some sick pleasure in killing a pregnant woman, then an inadvertent swing of his bat might just end Maggie's life. And with Maggie potentially dying in front of his very eyes, Glenn would immediately jump from his kneeling position to rescue her but then he'd be met by Negan's bat just the same.

Regardless of how it happens, there'll definitely be multiple major character deaths taking place during the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead. And although we're still a week away from figuring out who Negan is going to kill, we already know that at least one of his victims is lined up next to Rick, who could either be Maggie or Abraham. Everything else is still speculative at the moment. However, the bits and pieces of information made available so far have narrowed down the hit-list to a few plausible candidates, those being Maggie, Abraham, and Glenn.

Here are the available angles of the Negan line-up to analyze for yourself.