The Walking Dead: Greg Nicotero celebrates 10th anniversary of “No Sanctuary” (exclusive)

UndeadThe Season 5 premiere proved “No Sanctuary” for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and the survivors. The episode, written by Scott M. Gimple and directed by Greg Nicotero, saw the group fight their way out of Terminus after being trapped in a train car and nearly massacred by cannibals. Believing that “you are either the butcher or the cattle,” Gareth’s (Andrew J. West) family arrived at Terminus in search of what was promised on the signs leading to the tracks: “Sanctuary for all. Community for everyone. Whoever arrives survives.”

But not everyone who arrived survived. A fierce Rick, who warned that the Termites were “messing with the wrong people,” led a violent uprising when exiled Carol (Melissa McBride) returned and targeted Terminus. And just in time: a butcher was just minutes away from taking a baseball bat to Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) head and slitting the throats of Daryl (Norman Reedus), Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) and Rick gagged in a gutter that it was already flowing. with blood.

Despite all the shocking deaths and relentless brutality, the episode ended with a tender embrace between best friends Daryl and Carol, and Rick and Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) reunion with baby Judith after she was saved by Tyreese (Chad Coleman ). Rick’s survivors then left the burning Terminus to rot, and in a post-credits scene, Morgan Jones (Lennie James) found the sign that Rick had changed from “Sanctuary for All” to “No Sanctuary.”

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The episode, which premiered on October 12, 2014, is still one of the series’ highest-rated episodes among fans and remains the most-watched episode of UndeadThe 11-season, 12-year run on AMC.

The Season 5 premiere drew series high ratings with 17.3 million viewers and was watched by 11 million adults in the coveted 18-49 demographic. AMC reported at the time that about 22 million total viewers tuned in to the episode considering the time-shifted playback, making “No Sanctuary” the highest-rated episode in cable television history.

“It was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had,” episode director Greg Nicotero exclusively told ComicBook during an interview with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol. “I remember sitting down with Scott Gimple and talking about the gutter sequence and putting in the baseball bat as a hint at Negan’s imminent arrival a few seasons later.”

Before Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan dropped his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat on Glenn and Michael Cudlitz’s Abraham Ford in 2016’s even more shockingly violent Season 7 premiere, also directed by Nicotero, “No Sanctuary” surpassed the limits of horror that audiences have come to expect from AMC’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel.

Looking back at the season five opener 10 years later, Nicotero reflected fondly on what is “probably the most harrowing first 10 minutes of an episode, and we got away with it.”

“I mean, I’m shocked at what we did,” Nicotero added. “We shot that episode in nine days, 10 days. I don’t even know how we did it, but we did it. And it was a really great experience to see all of those stories applied to that particular episode.”

“(‘No Sanctuary’) and ‘No Way Out’, the invasion of Alexandria, Night of the Living Dead episode, I think these are two of the strongest in the series”, said Nicotero, who was with Undead since its inception in 2010. Fans seem to agree: the Season 6 episode “No Way Out” ranks just behind “No Sanctuary” on the list of the best episodes of all time. Undead.

As then-president of AMC Networks, Charlie Collier, said in 2014: “Undead is one of those increasingly rare shows these days that can win over a live audience that isn’t significantly cannibalized by time-shifted viewing. Who would have thought that cannibalized television could be restricted by cannibalized television?”

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