The Walking Dead showrunner warns fans to brace for a "highly emotional" finale

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'Rest in Peace' will be full of "excitement, scariness, and high stakes," says Angela Kang – but our heroes, and their bond, will be the focus

Norman Reedus as Daryl and Melissa McBride as Carol in The Walking Dead season 11
(Image credit: Jace Downs/AMC)

Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 11, episode 23. If you've not yet caught up with the show, turn back now.

The Walking Dead finale is almost upon us, and according to showrunner Angela Kang, it's going to be "highly emotional". Hardly surprising, really, given how willing the long-running horror series has been to leave its viewers bawling over the years – but given that this is guaranteed to be the last time we'll see some of our favorite apocalypse survivors, it's bound to be a lot. 

"It's a ride. For the audience, there will be tears, and the tears will come for different reasons for different characters," Kang recently told TVLine. "But we really felt that at the core of this, there's horror in this world. There's obviously action and adventure. But the reason people follow these people is because there is heart.

"There is a chosen family, there's something about their will to make it past the worst circumstances that is inspiring. So we leaned really hard in that direction, because we felt that's what the core of the show is."

The penultimate episode, titled 'Family', rolled credits on a cliffhanger, as Daryl tried to rush a wounded Judith to the Commonwealth clinic and the community was invaded by a horde of "smart" zombies. Desperate to save her own skin, governor Pamela Milton ordered troopers to purposefully "divert" the walkers to the lower class quarters, which led to our heroes being penned in. 'Rest in Peace', the finale, then, is sure to kick off in the midst of the drama.

"There's lots of excitement, scariness and high stakes," promised Kang. "All of that's there. For the people who are craving some really cool action, you'll get that. But I think, most importantly, there are really lovely character moments between people. I'm so blown away by our cast and the work that they put into it. Greg Nicotero pulled out all the stops directing a very, very challenging, huge episode in the midst of all the things that we had to deal with production-wise."

Amy West
Amy West

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.