The Walking Dead is coming to an end with its final season in the form of Season 11 which begins airing later this year. Cast members like Ezekiel actor Khary Payton and Aaron actor Ross Marquand have opened up about the final 24-episode run while talking to ComicBook.com and now The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has talked about beginning the end. Of course, this is not really the true end of the line for The Walking Dead universe, as spinoff shows and a Rick Grimes movie are promised beyond the final season’s conclusion. Kirkman, who is currently promoting his Invincible comic’s adaptation in the form of an animated series on Amazon, talked with ComicBook.com about this near future for his live-action zombie saga.
“I haven’t really thought about [ending The Walking Dead] to be honest but cause it’s still a ways away,” Kirkman says, as seen in the video above. The final season began production earlier this year but is expected to shoot right up to the end of 2021 and will air into late 2022. “At the same time, you know, we’re already talking about the Carol and Daryl show and there’s different ways that The Walking Dead will live on,” the writer and creator says. “So I guess concluding at Season 11 in some ways isn’t really a conclusion. So, I haven’t really thought about it but now you’re making me real sad!”
Kirkman abruptly ended The Walking Dead comic a couple of years ago, giving audiences and the creatives involved with the AMC show their first look at how the story which he was writing would end. Now, he is leaving the ending of the TV series up to the powers that be and remaining in the conversations as they develop it.
“This is something that Angela Kang is working really hard on crafting,” Kirkman says. “I have had some vague conversations with Scott [Gimple] and Angela about the direction and how things are going to wrap up, and what aspects of the comic they may or may not be using. But I think that it is, still somewhat in flux and I’m very excited to see what Angela does and I’m very confident that she’s gonna do something amazing because that’s what she does.”
As for the movie which was promised originally as a trilogy following Andrew Lincoln’s final episode on the show as Rick Grimes, Kirkman declares, “I have no update,” which has been a common theme for this project. Still, having worked on the script after getting involved following the film’s first drafts being turned in, Kirkman sounds excited for what the movie does have to offer when it finally arrives.
“I think that the show is very much an ensemble story and this is very much Rick story. So, I think being able to focus more on Rick as a character and do more with him is really cool. I think it’s gonna be a very different kind of Walking Dead story, which is really exciting. You know, when you’re doing something like this you have to make sure that it makes sense for it to be a movie. This isn’t just some kind of expansion of what you’re expecting from the show. This is something that’s gonna be very different but it’s gonna be the Rick Grimes that we all know and love. And I’m very excited for people to finally see it when it’s released in 2032.”
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Kirkman’s Invincible drops its first three episodes on Amazon this Friday.