The Walking Dead is coming to an end. The hit AMC zombie series will finish with a bumper 24-episode season 11 stretching until 2022 – and there's future spin-offs planned, including one starring Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon and Melissa McBride’s Carol Peletier.
“It's been ten years gone by; what lies ahead are two more to come and stories and stories to tell beyond that,” said Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple.
"What’s clear is that this show has been about the living, made by a passionate cast, team of writer/producers, producers, and crew, bringing to life the vision put forth by Robert Kirkman in his brilliant comic — and supported by the best fans in the world. We have a lot of thrilling story left to tell on [The Walking Dead], and then, this end will be a beginning of more Walking Dead — brand new stories and characters, familiar faces and places, new voices, and new mythologies. This will be a grand finale that will lead to new premieres. Evolution is upon us. The Walking Dead lives.”
The show's current showrunner, Angela Kang, added: “I look forward to digging in with our brilliant writers, producers, directors, cast and crew to bring this epic final chapter of Robert Kirkman’s story to life for our fans over the next two years. The Walking Dead flagship series has been my creative home for a decade and so it’s bittersweet to bring it to an end, but I could not be more excited to be working with Scott Gimple and AMC to develop a new series for Daryl and Carol. Working with Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride has been a highlight of my career and I’m thrilled that we get to keep telling stories together.”
The first spin-off is currently set for 2023. Presumably, that spoils at least part of The Walking Dead’s potential body count – Daryl and Carol are set to lead the standalone show, which must be music to the ears of ‘Caryl’ shippers everywhere.
There's another spin-off, titled "Tales of the Walking Dead" which is "an episodic anthology with individual episodes or arcs of episodes focused on new or existing characters, backstories or other stand-alone experiences.” Negan origin, anyone?
In The Walking Dead’s immediate future, the next episode – once season 10’s finale – is set to air on October 4, with six more episodes tacked on to the current season coming in early 2021. The Walking Dead movies, starring Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, are also currently in the works.
While the sun is setting on the mainline Walking Dead franchise, the future looks strong for the series: there are movies, spin-offs (including Fear the Walking Dead and the new show World Beyond both set for October releases), and more adventures with Daryl and Carol. There's still life in The Walking Dead yet.
