The Walking Dead season 7 star Andrew Lincoln: 'I'd love Rick to kill Negan'

*Spoilers for season 7 episode 12 follow*

The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln says he'd love for his character Rick Grimes to be the one to kill Negan in a future season of the TV series.

Lincoln was discussing the show's latest episode, 'Say Yes,' when he was asked by Variety who he believes should be the one to end the life of the malevolent leader of The Saviours, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

He said: “Who should kill Negan? Frankly, I’d love to kill him. I get people from 18 years old to 88 stopping me in the street, thinking I’m the character, and going, 'When are you going to kill Negan?!' Whether or not we do this season is another matter. And whether or not it even happens, even.

“He’s a formidable force in the show,” Lincoln continued. “I think there’s a long way to go yet before we are anything like the army that we need to be in order to challenge him or take him down.”

The actor is aware that he'd be lucky to be the one to commit the act considering pretty much everybody has a motivation for doing the same.

“There’s sort of a line around the block now, isn’t there? But we’ve got to get the Kingdom on our side first, or somebody else, so there’s a long ways to go before we can even really think about that question.”

The latest episode of The Walking Dead, which hinted at future deaths to come, largely focused on couple Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira). One scene in the episode saw a distraught Michonne believe Rick to have been devoured by a horde of walkers.

Lincoln commented: “She knows that if [Rick] does die - and he will die at some point - the community has to go forward. And she is an absolutely qualified leader in her own right. Rick is no fool. He’s in the firing line. He’s going to war with the Big Bad Wolf and there’s going to be collateral damage.”

You can find the episode's five major talking points here. AMC has released the trailer for next week's episode which will see the return of badass Carol. The latest episode will air in the UK tonight (6 March) at 9pm on FOX.