Like pretty much everything in the last year, The Walking Dead has faced various setbacks due to the pandemic. There’s no need to worry, however: despite the delays, The Walking Dead's 11th — and final — season promises to be “gigantic” and “unlike anything people have seen before,” showrunner Angela Kang recently told SFX magazine. “We’re always trying to creatively top ourselves, give people a really fun, cinematic experience, while also being true to these characters that people have grown to love,” she said.
The season promises to be a supersized one following an already extended season 10, with new characters and “human drama” to boot.
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With that in mind, here’s what you need to know about the final season of The Walking Dead and when to expect it.
How many episodes are left in The Walking Dead season 10?
Like the final season, the 10th season is larger than usual, with 22 episodes instead of 16. The schedule has been a little all over the place thanks to the pandemic. The planned season finale, which was supposed to air last April, wasn’t released until October 2020. An additional six episodes were tacked on to this season (hence The Walking Dead randomly back a few months after the last set of episodes), set to broadcast from February 28 until April 4.
When is the final season of The Walking Dead?
Season 11 was originally supposed to premiere in October 2020. However, due to the pandemic delays and extra season 10 episodes, filming didn’t begin until February 2021, with Kevin Dowling directing the season premiere. The exact dates for the finale and premiere aren’t yet announced, but the season is expected to air over two years, according to Deadline, ending just in time for the Daryl and Carol spinoff set to be released in 2023.
The final season is expected to be supersized with a whopping 24 episodes — six more than the usual 16, just like in season 10.
How will The Walking Dead end?
While we don’t know too many specifics yet, we can definitely expect the season to draw inspiration from the comics. “I happen to love working from source material,” executive producer David Alpert said back in 2014 of The Walking Dead's eventual end.
In a recent interview with NME, Kang also hinted at what fans might expect in the final season. New characters and communities will be introduced, antagonists and allies alike. There will be plenty of “human drama” with the return of Maggie and a storyline involving Maggie and Negan, she said. Don’t expect anything similar to the Whisperers, though — “We’re not going to be repeating ourselves with the type of story that we’re doing,” Kang told SFX, signaling a different direction for the last season.
The ending, however, might not be set in stone just yet. “I do have a sense of where it might end but we are working on all of that,” Kang told NME. Whatever happens, sounds like we can certainly expect an epic, zombified ending.