The Walking Dead’s send-off panel at Friday’s Hall H panel was less a preview of the upcoming final season and more a retrospective on an impressive 11 seasons of television.
Cast and creative talent recounted, sometimes tearfully, their favorite experiences, scenes, and relationships as they all chimed in on what TWD means to us all, as a whole. So what is the ultimate message of TWD, now that it’s become a Universe? While many expressed similar sentiments, Lauren Ridloff (“Connie”) perhaps put it best when she said that TWD is a reflection of our own society, ourselves, and our everyday lives. Who are you and what are you going to choose? Love? Hate? Survival?
In the press conference later on, showrunner Angela Kang assured audiences that while the Universe will be continuing via various spin-offs, she hopes that they will “go along for the ride” with the ending they’ve chosen and that it will provide a sense of closure for the flagship show. This finale will be about concluding the story of eleven years, while still leaving open a few doors, much like our real life.
Among the highlights of the TWDU Friday Comic-Con experience:
– The biggest news of the day is the return of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), as he and Danai Gurira’s Michonne are set to star in a 6-episode spin-off show all their own, airing in 2023. This will be a replacement for the previously announced Rick Grimes movie trilogy. Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple described it as an “epic love story.”
– Melissa McBride gave us the most emotional moment of the panel, as she broke down in tears thinking back on her years playing Carol Peletier, one of the most iconic characters on the show. While she may not be continuing onward with any spin-off at the moment (after stepping away in April from the previously announced spin-off centered around Daryl and Carol), frequent scene partner and on-screen “soul mate” Norman Reedus (“Daryl”) assured fans that “Daryl and Carol’s story is not over yet.”
– Greg Nicotero assured press that they made time for each major character in the final episodes, shooting at least one scene for each that really “gets to the heart” of the show.
– Tales of the Walking Dead is intended to be more theatrical in nature, exploring new genres while staying within the world of TWD.
– Samantha Morton will be returning as Alpha, but not Alpha. She will be playing Dee, which is who Alpha was before she became Alpha. Dee is a character “we’ve never met before,” teased Morton. She also expressed gratitude for the “opportunity of a lifetime” to play a character like Alpha, as women of a certain age are often limited to roles playing housewives and “making the tea.”
– Kang confirmed that the faster walkers we saw in Season 1 of the flagship show represented a glimpse of the faster, smarter variant we are set to see in Season 11 (most likely a convenient retcon, but we’ll take it).
– Terry Crews (Tales of the Walking Dead) may be new to TWD, but he’s already become one of its biggest cheerleaders and bears mentioning for his enthusiasm! He compared the fighting of zombies in TWD to fighting bad thoughts, a metaphor for life. A big fan of both TWD and Night of the Living Dead, he praised the horror genre for its power of social commentary.
As TWD Universe moves on into the new stories that await in its multiplying number of spin-offs, Gimple promised that the stories will remain focused “on big characters, not just the situation.” This was most likely a response to recent fan criticisms that the ever-expanding Universe is losing touch with the intimate character-based storytelling that made TWD successful in the first place. Only time will tell if the new shows keep that promise, but the new shows do seem poised to pique fans’ interest in all things TWD for a while longer yet, making it the franchise that just won’t die.
-Allyson Floyd
