'The Walking Dead': Did Robert Kirkman Give Away a Major Character Death or Was He Trolling Us Again?

The following article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season7.

At the 2017 Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle on Saturday, Robert Kirkman did a Q&A for The Walking Dead's panel, answering quite a few questions about the remaining episodes of Season 7. Kirkman hinted at more moments from the comics translating over to the #TheWalkingDead television series:

"I don't want to spoil things, but there is some stuff coming up."

And then, later in the panel, he dropped this TOTAL SPOILER bombshell, if true:

"If we didn't take the time to take a large portion of an episode to build up Eugene, you wouldn't be upset when we kill Eugene later this season."

After seeing the audience's shock at his comment, Kirkman clarified that he was only joking: "If I say that, it means he's not going to die. It means we're not going to kill [Eugene] off!" Is that the truth, or just him saving himself from a very public slip-up?

It's possible that Kirkman is trying to misdirect the audience like he's done so often in the past. If that's the case, then Eugene could meet his end sooner than we think. With Eugene still being held captive by Negan, he is not exactly in a safe situation.

How will Eugene make it out of Season 7 alive?

Let's take Kirkman at his word that Eugene survives Season 7, despite being a captive of the Saviors. Will he be rescued from the Saviors' compound by Rick? Or could he survive due to the new alliance he formed with Negan in last week's episode, "Hostiles and Calamities"?

Eugene took a seat by Negan's side among the rest of the Saviors. He did so in a way that it was very convincing. (Almost too convincing?) We can only speculate on whether or not Eugene has actually joined Negan's regime — or if he's doing espionage for Rick — but if Eugene really has dedicated himself to Negan's cause, then he could become an antagonist on The Walking Dead before the conclusion of Season 7.

Whatever the case may be, it appears as if Eugene Porter is safe from the chopping block for another season — unless Kirkman was pretending to be joking. Or was he pretending to be pretending to be joking? Maybe let's be wary of any more trolling from Kirkman in the coming weeks, at least until the season finale airs.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter