Fan Blowback Has Caused ‘The Walking Dead’ to Go a Less Violent Direction

The first half of the seventh season of The Walking Dead has been controversial among fans, especially for its level of graphic violence, which was extreme, even for a show about zombies. The season premiere showed brutal killings of main characters—with a barbed wire baseball bat.

Now, the producers are going to make some changes.

The show’s executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, told Variety that the blowback from fans actually caused the creative changes:

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 … This is not a show that is torture porn.

The Walking Dead returns on February 12.