The Walking Dead season 7: Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln compares Part B to The Magnificent Seven

Are Negan's days numbered?

Now Christmas and New Year is out the way, there's just over a month to go until the concluding episodes of The Walking Dead season 7 arrive.

If you're slightly concerned that life is too gloomy as it is, fret not - Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes in the AMC series, has promised the upcoming episodes will see a reprieve in the tension that encompassed the opening half.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he said: "There's a lot more levity, if you can believe that, than you've ever seen before in Mr. Grimes. There's sort of a freedom in him, a feeling that comes from losing everything, and also the thrill of the fight. It's the thrill of the fight again. He's back in. All I'm saying is that the band is back together."

He continued: "There are several episodes that I loved being involved in and it certainly feels very much more like a show that I knew and recognised in the back eight [episodes]."

Much of season 7's opening half saw Rick reduced to a shell of his former self following the traumatic murder of both Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan.

The closing moments of the latest episode saw him reassemble the fractured group in a bid to overthrow the Saviours.

"It's The Magnificent Seven in the back half. Rather, the magnificent eight episodes. Wait 'til [Episode] 16. I promise you, there is one beat in 16, I dropped my script and started punching the air and did a little jig."

Viewing ratings plummeted with many fans blaming the standalone format of the episodes, something we felt the need to defend.

The Walking Dead returns in the US on February 12 and will air the following evening in the UK, 9 pm on FOX. You can find our definitive ranking of all eight episodes thus far here, as well as a preview of all the shows to look out for in 2017 here.