The Walking Dead Season 11: Negan Takes the Lead in Episode 1 Sneak Peek

Negan tries to be helpful in the first official look at The Walking Dead season 11 premiere.

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 1
Photo: AMC

All summer AMC has been having some fun with its “11 Weeks of Reveals Until Season 11 of The Walking Dead” initiative. To promote the final season of its flagship zombie program, the network has revealed episode titles, new characters, and a handful of intriguing trailers.

With less than two weeks to go before The Walking Dead season 11 premiere on Sunday, Aug. 22, it looks like the “11 Weeks” project is ready to ramp up. Today AMC released a lengthy 90-second sneak peek at a scene from the season premiere, “Acheron.” The scene picks up with our survivors bumping shoulders in close quarters while Negan annoys everyone. Give it a look below!

You know things are looking grim when erstwhile Savior leader Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the only one talking sense. Here we find Negan, Maggie, Daryl, Gabriel, and several other survivors navigating an abandoned subway tunnel. When Negan hears some ominous mechanical groaning he very suddenly finds religion. 

“You know what that noise actually is? That is God telling us to turn around.”

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After Gabriel dismisses that concern out of hand, Negan opts for a more scientific appeal. 

“Waterline mark. That means this tunnel floods on a regular basis…like when it rains.”

Though Negan has sometimes felt vestigial to the plot since the conclusion of the All Out War arc in season 8, it seems as though season 11 is prepared to get him back to what he does best: surviving. 

It’s easy to condemn Negan’s old group the Saviors as a bunch of unsophisticated psychos led by a charismatic totalitarian. But as Negan’s water line observation reveals here – he’s just really good at this whole post-apocalypse thing. It’s only natural that people eager to survive would bend their will to him. 

You also might notice that there appears to be a bit of a leadership vacuum at the moment among the survivors. The Alexandria council was effective but it’s lost several members. Maggie is a natural leader but are the Alexandrians willing to recognize her as such after a lengthy absence? And Daryl? Well, he’s just Daryl. 

The Alexandria group is set to confront challenging times on The Walking Dead season 11. The synopsis for the first episode reads.

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“Returning to Alexandria from a critical food mission, the group realizes it isn’t enough. Maggie proposes a new plan, potentially a suicide mission. What choice do they have? They must find more food for all their people in order to survive and efficiently rebuild Alexandria. If they don’t, Alexandria falls, taking them down with it. Once on the road, a violent storm erupts forcing them underground into a subway tunnel. As nerves fray and suspicions increase, chaos ensues. The terror is relentless as our people get a glimpse of what Maggie and her group endured prior to returning to Alexandria. Meanwhile, those captured by the strange soldiers are relocated to another undisclosed location.”

Sounds like times are desperate. And they say that desperate times require desperate measures…like maybe installing a former dictator as leader?

The Walking Dead season 11 premieres Sunday, August 22 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.