--- title: Walking Dead Producer on Negan's Saviors Inner Workings description: The Walking Dead's Greg Nicotero explains how Rick Grimes and company were so easily captured by Negan's Saviors in the season six finale. canonical: https://time.com/4408204/walking-dead-began-saviors-inner-workings/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-15T17:28:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:27.315Z og:title: The Walking Dead Producer on the Inner Workings of Negan's Saviors og:description: "As sadistic as they may appear, they have a system that works for them" og:url: https://time.com/4408204/walking-dead-began-saviors-inner-workings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Walking Dead Producer on the Inner Workings of Negan's Saviors twitter:description: "As sadistic as they may appear, they have a system that works for them" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # _Walking Dead's_ Producer Reveals Why Negan's Saviors Plot Evil So Well > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=49279fd6-d92e-4ef1-9d24-0bfe6cd57bbf&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 15, 2016 5:28 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 15, 2016 5:28 PM UTC The closing moments of the [season six finale](http://time.com/4280235/walking-dead-season-finale/) of [_The Walking Dead_](http://time.com/4194632/walking-dead-villains-ranking/)saw Rick Grimes and company awaiting their fate at the hands of [Negan](http://time.com/4404894/the-walking-dead-who-negan-killed/) and his barbed wire-covered baseball bat Lucille — a trap they had been lured into by the infamous Saviors earlier in the episode. This sequence came as a shock to many viewers, with some in disbelief that the Alexandrian residents had been so easily tricked by Negan’s henchman. However, in a recent interview with [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/15/walking-dead-season-7-saviors-greg-nicotero), executive producer Greg Nicotero explained that the villainous group is one of the most seasoned out there. > [](https://twitter.com/NewsOfTheDead/status/753597582220357632) “The Saviors, as sadistic as they may appear, they have a system that works for them,” he told _EW_. “Yeah, they’re f—ed up and they’re a little weird, but they’ve been doing this for a long time and they have a very large group. It’s not like it’s a pocket of 10 or 12 people. They have a good thing going and the most interesting thing about them for me is there’s mythos involved with them. It’s like, you hear about this guy Negan, just like you hear about this guy Rick, and you hear about these people. There’s a lot of that involved in [season seven](http://time.com/4281933/walking-dead-season-7-negan/).” Nicotero went on to say that fans can expect to find out more about the Saviors in season seven. “The nice thing about this season is you will get a chance to see some of these inner workings of these different worlds and these communities and really get a chance to see how much they know about the rest of the world,” he said. “I think that’s a really good theme for season seven which is, nobody really knows what the world has in store for them out there. So, the audience, just like these people, goes through these journeys.” The premiere of the seventh season of _The Walking Dead_ will air on AMC on Oct. 9. Read more at [EW.com](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/15/walking-dead-season-7-saviors-greg-nicotero). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4408204/walking-dead-began-saviors-inner-workings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4408204/walking-dead-began-saviors-inner-workings/"},"headline":"Walking Dead's Producer Reveals Why Negan's Saviors Plot Evil So Well","datePublished":"2016-07-15T17:28:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:27.315Z","description":"\"As sadistic as they may appear, they have a system that works for them\"","url":"https://time.com/4408204/walking-dead-began-saviors-inner-workings/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","The Walking Dead","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4408204/walking-dead-began-saviors-inner-workings/","name":"Walking Dead's Producer Reveals Why Negan's Saviors Plot Evil So Well"}}]}] ```