The Walking Dead season 6 finale: Andrew Lincoln seems genuinely heartbroken over cliffhanger ending

'Negan has got a baseball bat and he’s smashing everything I’ve fought for'

(AMC)

Andrew Lincoln's Walking Dead character Rick Grimes found himself in a rare situation in the show's season six finale.

Having been caught by The Saviours, he was brought to his knees at the mercy of their fearsome leader Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) alongside ten members of his group - one of which the antagonist proceeded to bludgeon to death with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

Talking to Variety, Lincoln revealed his thoughts on how the zombie drama's current season ended.

"The moment that Rick gets to his knees and acquiesces and almost hands the crown to Negan, it’s done.

"I was very consciously trying to position Rick in this place where all he’s fought for and killed for these last few years has been smashed all around him in that final scene."

Having previously revealed that reading the script made him feel "physically sick," Lincoln elaborated: "...it was the frustration I felt that I play this man who had answers to every available situation up until this point. I felt just powerless and frustrated and thwarted and angry and all of the things when I was reading it. It made me so upset. I think I was feeling all of the things you’re supposed to feel when watching it: It’s over."

"I’m so used to playing someone who had a way out or had an answer and I had to play a man who got to his knees. This felt like a demolishing of all of this work that had happened over six years. [Negan] has got a baseball bat and he’s smashing everything I’ve fought for."

Inevitably, Lincoln was questioned about the season's climactic murder, the character's identity of which will remain a mystery to viewers until the show returns in October (read up on who it could be here).

"Because it’s too painful and too intense, we made a pact on set that we won’t speak about it," he stated. "I apologize but I can’t talk about it."

"I think what happened and is about to happen at the beginning of the next season is going to change irrevocably who [Rick] is from now on. That’s if he makes it past the bat…"

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If Lincoln's remaining tight-lipped on whether he knows the identity of the felled character, then seek solace in the fact that his on-screen son Chandler Riggs does not.

The Walking Dead returns to FOX in October. Producers have hinted at what fans can expect from season seven.