The Walking Dead may be coming to a conclusion, but it sure isn’t going quietly.
AMC is making sure an epic send-off for its zombie play, which has become a worldwide sensation through its decade over the air, together with the forthcoming 11th season accompanied by a series of bonus episodes enlarging the world of this show.
Affectionately dubbed”in-between-sequels” by some enthusiasts, the specials are all set to air later this season, together with teasers and release dates starting to arrive ahead of the final season’s premiere in 2022.
Those concluding episodes will see the debut of Mercer, a firm favourite from Robert Kirkman’s comic book collection, who is to be played by Avengers star Michael James Shaw.
Instantly recognizable with his glowing orange body armour, the personality has a background from the United States Marine Corps that allows him to take a high-ranking position in the post-apocalyptic Commonwealth Military.
It could be some time before we have any exact information about the release date for season 11, but it’s expected the season will start in late 2021, together with the second half airing in 2022.
What we do know is that filming has begun, with producer Kevin Deiboldt revealing via Twitter that production got underway in early February 2021, also sharing that”we truly hope it is worth the wait”.
The season is set to be epic in length, together with as many as 24 episodes divided into two distinct batches, and we’ll inform you when we get news of the official release dates.
Before then, however, lovers have some extra season 10 episodes to look ahead to – with six bonus incidents having been announced in July 2020. Showrunner Angela Kang recently along with other media, the episodes could”dive deeply into some of these characters that we’ve. It is a kind of focused, almost more anthology-like storytelling in some of these”.
And we know the dates for those episodes – they’ll air out of Sunday 28th February throughout the Atlantic and the subsequent day, Monday 1st March in the united kingdom.
In the united states, the first bonus episode will also be available a week from Sunday 21st February on AMC+.
Yes, sadly the main Walking Dead story will finish with the 11th season – but there are still a good deal more to come from the franchise in general.
After the announcement was made revealing the 11th season would be the last, a further two spin-off displays were announced, linking the preexisting Fear the Walking Dead and the upcoming The Walking Dead: World Beyond, even though a series of Rick Grimes spin-off movies will also be in the pipeline.
Scott Gimple, Chief Content Officer for the Walking Dead franchise stated: “It’s been 10 years gone by;’ what lies ahead are just two more to come along with stories and stories to tell past this.
“What is clear is that this show has been around the living, made by a fervent cast, group of writer/producers, productions, and crew, bringing to life the vision set forth by Robert Kirkman in his brilliant comic — and supported by the best fans in the world.
“We have a great deal of thrilling story left to inform TWD, and then, this end will be a beginning of more Walking Dead – brand new stories and personalities, familiar faces and locations, fresh voices, and new mythologies. This will be a grand finale that will lead to brand new premieres. Evolution depends upon us. The Walking Dead lives.”
There’s also recently been news of a possible Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBridge) spinoff, which wouldn’t broadcast until 2023, the celebrities teased at the New York Comic Con Metaverse panel.
“I think it’s good that people are getting excited and have something to look forward to,” actress Melissa McBride stated. “Daryl and Carol have a lot of fans out there, [that ] had talked about how enjoyable it is to see them have a spin-off. I’m excited!”
“All these figures have gotten to the point where they can cope with, and sometimes not cope with, every other in our little group,” Reedus added. “When you choose these two characters and set them on the street and they go see who is left out on earth, just how do you… it is like coming out of jail, sort of. You sort of need to re-adapt to individuals.”
Meanwhile, Lauren Cohan, who plays Maggie in the series, informed Entertainment Weekly that there are”murmurings” of a potential series focussing on her character.
“I understand there are murmurings of an extended narrative with Maggie when the official mothership is done. So just like you and I talked about a year or two decades ago now, whatever it was, that’s cool,” she explained.
Barring any surprise exits at the six”bonus” episodes set to round off season 10, you can expect all season 10’s Most Important cast to return for The Walking Dead’s final series, including Norman Reedus as Daryl, Melissa McBridge as Carol, Christian Serratos as Rosita, Josh McDermitt as Eugene, Seth Gilliam as Father Gabriel, Ross Marquand as Aaron, Khary Payton as Ezekiel, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan.
It’s also likely that Lauren Cohan will play a significant part as Maggie Rhee after she returned in dramatic fashion at the season 10 finale two years after leaving the show.
And there have been some rumours that Andrew Lincoln could reunite as Rick Grimes, with Reedus stating that he has attempted to convince his former co-star to go back for the last season.
Most recently, Hilarie Burton has been declared as a significant newcomer for its excess season 10 episodes, a place to depict Negan’s wife Lucille – the woman he named his barbaric baseball bat after.
And showrunner Angela Kang has shown that”the both of them are wonderful together”.
“Scott Gimple and I’ve talked to some long time concerning the fact that, perhaps, she could be Lucille if we ever came to do the’Here is Negan’ story,” she said.
“She brings such a wonderful soul to that job and she did her research about what it is like to be a cancer patient. I think that she brings such beauty to the way that she plays the many different facets that I think folks will love to view.”
She is not the only brand new cast member to the season 10 episodes – with Terminator 2 star Robert Patrick brought in to play survivor Mays, Cobra Kai’s Okea Eme-Akwari starring as Maggie’s scythe-wielding right-hand guy Elijah and Bosch’s Lynn Collins introduced as outsider Leah.
Meanwhile, Michael James Shaw has been confirmed to be playing with Mercer in season 11, a character introduced towards the end of the comic book series who nevertheless made a big impression on fans.
We’ll let you know when it becomes clear which other actors will be starring in the last season – with both returning and new characters likely to feature.
With 24 episodes ahead, it appears likely that the final season is not going to be more light on activity and play.
At this stage of the event, plot particulars are quite hard to come by, but the season will probably concentrate on the debut of The Commonwealth and the wake of this Whisperer War.
And lovers will probably not find too many hints about what could happen by looking at the comic book source material – the TV show has already strayed pretty far from the storyline of these comics.
However, showrunner Angela Kang teased at New York Comic-Con’s recent The Walking Dead panel the productions have been needing to”think outside the box” as it pertains to COVID limitations.
“It is not going to be the sort of thing because we can not have 300 zombie extras and people [with] faces hammered together, with hens all over the area,” she said. “But, the thing that’s been cool is we have had to think outside the box. Like, the way to make things still feel really scary and really cool and very psychological, while being a bit more cognizant of, for example, how many people are in a spectacle ”
“Like, are there any ways to do so where people are not always in each other’s faces? Hopefully, once the audience watches it, they won’t feel the things we are doing.”
She added that they’ll be diving”quite deeply into those cool character stories” at the upcoming episodes, but would not give any clues away regarding which characters they could be.
“We’ve got certainly a story that many comic book fans have been waiting for a very long time, and I like this script. So, you know, we will get to tease matters in a different manner. There are limits but I think it’s been a cool creative challenge in precisely the same time.”
When season 11 does come around, we are bound to see some friction between Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who returned to the series for its season 10 finale, and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who killed Maggie’s husband’s Glenn in year seven.
Cohan revealed: “I have not been privy to such saving graces of Negan’s or his excellent relationship with kids or his affinity for animals. I don’t know any of them. And even if I did… So, it is going to be a lot.”
She added: “It’s certainly going to be much when she comes back. I am so jonesing to get into it. It’s really, it’s fricking great. And I couldn’t be doing it with anybody more fun than Jeffrey [Dean Morgan]. It is just, we are amped. It’s fantastic.”
Back in December 2020, Kang shared an image of The Walking Dead’s new season 11 villains on Instagram, together with the picture showing a member of this Commonwealth in armour that’s somewhat reminiscent of a Star Wars stormtrooper.
We are still a little while away from the release of the entire season so no trailer is forthcoming just yet – but we’ll inform you when one becomes available!
There are, however, a trailer for the string 10 bonus episodes, which shows the reunion of Negan and Lucille. Check it out below:
Another teaser to the incentive episodes was shown in February 2021, and even though the primary focus was on the difficulties of filming throughout the ordeal, there were also a few tips about what might happen – with a single shot of Maggie Rhee and the Masked Man walking through the forests. You may see it in full below.