The Walking Dead plans to 'tone down' violence after backlash over brutal deaths

The Walking Dead shocked fans with its ultra-grisly season six and seven, putting some fans off from continuing to watch the show.

It has now emerged that bosses promise to "tone down" the violence in the zombie apocalypse series after facing an extensive backlash from viewers over the gory images in the first half of season seven – with Glenn's brutal death amongst other eye-peeling horrors.

Executive producer of the show, Gale Anne Hurd, claimed that the violence will be scaled back in the next eight episodes when she spoke on the panel at the National Association of Television Program Executives conference in Miami.

The promise seems a little unrealistic at this moment in time, however, due to a promised battle between Alexandria and The Saviours.

Nevertheless, Hurd said: "We were able to look at the feedback on the level of violence. We did tone it down for episodes we were still filming for later on in the season."

The seventh season caused a stir both in the USA and UK, with an Ofcom investigation being launched in the latter. Fans took to Twitter to complain about the violence as many made official claims due to the gratuitously horrific death scenes – Glenn Rhee and Abraham Ford's bludgeoning by Negan springing to mind first.

Hurd went on to promise that show producers are taking greater consideration to not "cross that line" in the future, adding: "This is not a show that is torture porn."

Elsewhere in the show's return, fans should expect to be introduced to a new character, according to Entertainment Weekly. In a newly released picture, Rick is seen looking at a mysterious woman in a junkyard behind his shoulder, quite smoulderingly, might we add.

Showrunner Scott Gimple said: "I'm just going to say that Rick is going to meet this person and/or persons pretty quickly... I cannot wait for people to meet this character and to see this actor. There is some formidable fun coming up."

The Walking Dead is set to return on AMC on 12 February and will be aired on Fox in the UK on 13 February.