‘Walking Dead’ Season 7 Spoilers: Norman Reedus Teases ‘Heartbreaking’ Future For Daryl

Daryl is not in a good place. After witnessing Negan brutally murder two of his friends in Season 7 premiere of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” Norman Reedus said in a new interview that his character will be in pretty bad shape when fans finally catch up with him.

Episode 2 focused on Carol (Melissa McBride) and Morgan (Lennie James), but a sneak peek of Sunday’s episode 3 teased that it will focus primarily on Daryl, who’s being held at The Sanctuary with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his henchmen.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly Thursday, Reedus teased that things will be “heartbreaking” for Daryl and he blames himself for Glenn’s (Steve Yeun) death. As fans may recall, in the premiere episode Negan initially chose Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) as his victim but then turned his barbed-wire bat on Glenn after Daryl tried to attack him.

“He completely takes the weight of that and just carries that with him. He never forgives himself and he takes full responsibility,” he said.

Reedus went on to say that Daryl was just trying to do the right thing by sticking up for Rosita (Christian Serratos) and had no idea that it would mean the demise for someone else. “The outcome of that, nobody knew that was going to happen,” he said. “The truth is that whole group on that show would have done anything to protect any of us, and that guy’s crazy with the bat. The weight of Glenn’s death is going to weigh on Daryl heavily, I know it does. He gives up, he loses the fight, he’s keeping to himself, whatever’s happening to him, he thinks he deserves it. … It’s heartbreaking from here on out for Daryl.”

Although Reedus said his character will take the blame for Glenn’s death, Yeun told Entertainment Weekly last week that he doesn’t think the fan-favorite character was at fault. “I think Daryl is a character that will blame himself. I think that’s enough for him,” Yeun said. “Even if it’s not real or even if it’s not accurate or fair, I think he would shoulder that type of burden. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with that and I’m sure Norman will crush it.”

In a sneak peek for episode 3, titled “The Cell,” Daryl is seen at The Sanctuary with Dwight (Austin Amelio). He doesn’t look well and is wearing a sweatshirt with a letter written on the back. The short clip, seen above, reveals that other Saviors wearing similar sweatshirts are hoarding walkers together to build a protective barrier around The Sanctuary’s fence.

“Walking Dead” Season 7 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on AMC.