Ed Ranks Who Negan Will Kill Sunday, From Least to Most Likely

Or maybe nobody will die and they'll just play baseball?

11. Rick Grimes - There is a 0% chance that Rick Grimes will die. AMC just released a Season 7 trailer where Negan is gloating to Rick about just killing his "right hand man." So Rick is, obviously, still alive after whoever was killed is killed because Negan is talking to Rick about how he killed that person. Even before that trailer came out though, the chances that Rick Grimes would die were 0%. It just won't happen. Now, as for him getting a hand sliced off... that's a different matter.

10. Carl Grimes - The chance of Carl dying isn't 0% but it's pretty low. And there is no way that Negan would brag to Rick about killing his son by calling his son his "right hand man." That's just silly. He'd be like, "I killed your son."

9. Aaron - Aaron is not important enough to die, honestly. Do you know how pissed off people would be if they waited this unbearable entire summer break to reveal that it was just Aaron? They'd probably be even angrier than they were when the season finale didn't show who was killed in the first place. And that made people pretty damn angry. Aaron isn't even important enough to get a last name.

8. Rosita Espinosa - Rosita is barely more important than Aaron, but she's been around a little while longer so it's a little more likely. Will she die eventually? Certainly. But they'll likely give her some more important plot line where you follow her for a few episodes and really start to relate to her before they finally stick her reanimated head on a pike. Rosita is a total "mid-season death" type of person. 

7. Sasha Williams - Sasha, unlike Rosita, has had a bit more plot development recently what with that whole "she's gone crazy and lives on piles of corpses" thing. Plus her stuff with Abraham. But she's still at that level of not being quite important enough of a character for an entire cliffhanger of the show to be based around her. If they did this, it would just be a cop out. Like Rosita, you should have no doubt she'll die soon enough - but this isn't the time yet.

6. Michonne - Michonne actually fits the bill of someone who could be considered Rick's "right hand man" (you should have no doubt that the gender of that statement could be included in the trailer by AMC to intentionally be misleading). But it's still not that likely. Although we have finally reached a character who is both important enough to die and it have a huge, epic, impact - but also not so important (like Rick or Carl) that it wouldn't be impossible to do. I just don't see this happening though. The most likely reason it would be Michonne is because she just started having sex with Rick, and via twisted Jason Vorhees logic that means she should be the next. And I'm aware she doesn't have a last name either, invalidating my earlier point about Aaron. But my counter-argument to you on that issue is SHUT UP.

5. Eugene Porter - Eugene Porter is almost not important enough to kill as part of a big cross-season cliffhanger because he's totally a second-tier character, unlike Michonne and other first-tier characters who would have a more devastating impact. But Josh McDermitt is just so damn lovable and great in the role that his death would be pretty devastating. Of all the characters left, he's the one who most consistently gives us comic relief to break the tension of how horrible life is otherwise. If they got rid of the one guy left who can really make us smile - that would be quite a punch to the gut (or bat to the head) and really show us that things are going to get even darker.

4. Glenn Rhee - Glenn might still die at the very place he is supposed to die in the comics. This would almost be a more shocking result than anything else because so many people assume that NO WAY is it going to be Glenn, especially after the Glenn fake-out death less than a season ago. It would be poor/lazy storytelling to "kill" Glenn twice in a year, right? But maybe that was just a red herring which was set up to make us think that Glenn would therefore be safe. And Glenn getting the bat from Negan in the comics is just so memorable. I wouldn't put money on it being Glenn, but it wouldn't be the craziest thing in the world. Still, I think the show is trying to make a point that "anything can happen" and that they don't need to mirror the comics exactly - and killing Glenn would be counter to that point.

3. Abraham Ford - After Season 6 ended and I calmed down from wanting to punch the TV for not showing who died, I settled upon Abraham Ford as clearly being the most likely character who would die. For starters, he was featured a lot last season. Like, a whole lot. His importance to the story and airtime in the show increased tenfold. That's exactly what The Walking Dead would do with an otherwise mid-level ensemble cast member when they're about to kill that person. And Abraham also reached the point where he died in the comics, and managed to survive that event because his death was replaced with the death of Schmidt's chubby girlfriend. For quite some time, it was my absolute belief that they were merely saving his death to be bigger event... like this! In fact, I'll feel bad if it is Abraham because then I know I should have stuck with my guns and picked him as #1. But now, I'm leaning towards The Walking Dead going even bigger and more depressing.

2. Daryl Dixon - There are a couple of reasons why killing Daryl would be a good and probable move by AMC, despite the "If Daryl dies we riot" meme which the internet has embraced. In fact, the "If Daryl dies we riot" sentiment might actually increase the likelihood that Daryl will be killed, because it's believed that he's such an important, untouchable character that there is NO WAY he could die! Therefore the shock of killing him anyway, despite how incredibly important he is and how beloved he is, would be a really effective move. It would be a game-changer for the show. Will people be furious? Yes. Sad? Yes. Will they stop watching in droves like they claim they will? Not really. Anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows that killing characters you love won't drive them away. A couple of additional reasons it could be Daryl? He could absolutely be called Rick's "right hand man." His character, who wasn't in the comics, was also inspired to a large degree by the comic character Jesus. Now that Jesus has been introduced to the show - is there room for both Daryl and Jesus?  Obviously the way that Jesus is being portrayed in the show is very un-Daryl-ish, showing that there could be enough of a differentiation for this reason to be a non-factor. But probably the most damning reason it could be Daryl is simply the fact that actor Norman Reedus has already been given another show. This show is also on AMC, so it could just be a fakeout by the Network to fool us. But  when you really have to start thinking of justifications like, "Oh, well that other show doesn't take too long to film and The Walking Dead is an ensemble cast, so Norman Reedus has plenty of time to film both shows," it's really time to think that maybe you're trying too hard to convince yourself that Daryl won't die.

You can be depressed now.

1. Maggie Greene - I saw one internet article that said that there was no way that Maggie would die, because the show would never stoop so low as to kill a pregnant woman. Which really makes me wonder if the person who wrote those words had ever seen a single episode of The Walking Dead in their life. Maggie is, depressingly and horrifically, the perfect character to kill off. Murdering a pregnant woman would be awful and terrible. It would be the darkest possible thing that the show could do. That's why it will happen because what the show wants to do is make Negan the most hated villain possible. Beyond that - think of the practicality of Maggie surviving and giving birth to a child. Story-wise, what exactly would that add to the show that hasn't already done with baby Judith Grimes? The show already has absolutely no idea what the hell to do with Judith. Just imagine if there were TWO babies hanging around. A few more reasons it will be Maggie? As I stated before, the whole "right hand man" comment being included in the trailer for Season 7 seems like the ultimate decoy to lead us in the direction of Daryl. Why release that clip if it just gives it away? Is Maggie really Rick's right hand man? In a lot of ways, no. But Negan doesn't really know these people that well and has only seen bits of them. The last few episodes made a concerted effort of making Maggie more badass and assertive. In particular, she led the negotiation at the Hilltop Community and participated in the raid against the Saviors. I could easily see how Negan would see Maggie in that right hand man role based on the last few episodes of Season 6. It also fits the show's pattern of killing people off once they've had major character development and airtime. Killing Maggie would also be a show "game-changer" just like killing Daryl would be (and thus worthy of a cliffhanger). There is a lot of out-of-show evidence too, ranging from Lauren Cohen's seeming lack of being in the Atlanta area when the show is filming, hints dropped by other cast members in interviews about how dark and sick the conclusion would be, and the fact that a slip of the tongue by a show producer in an interview referred to "deaths" when speaking about Negan killing rather than "death." Now Negan could kill two people as part of the cliffhanger resolution, the producer could have misspoke, or he could have simply referenced the fact that Negan will (of course) eventually kill more people as the season goes on. But another thing that the plural could refer to is Maggie and her unborn child. Yet there is even more compelling evidence. From the last trailer, the blood splatter on the right side of Rick's face would support a Maggie kill (she was to the right of Rick), and an object appears in a pile of guts on the ground that eagle-eyed fans using the pause button have said looks like Maggie's wedding ring. But the #1 reason it will be Maggie? It's simply the best story the show can do in order to both pay tribute to the source material while simultaneously mixing things up in a new direction. We've all been dreading Glenn's death via baseball bat and the horror of Glenn and Maggie's wonderful relationship being over. The show can still do that, while still making the event very Glenn-focused, by killing his wife instead. 

Unless they just lazily kill Abraham. In which case, forget I wrote these last two.

Update 10/23: 

Yeah, so I'm pretty bad at this. Don't let such a minor fluke let you distrust the rest of my rankings. Those things are all solid.  I never said I was Nostradamus.