It has been exactly 104 days since we last saw a new episode of The Walking Dead, or any episode from The Walking Dead universe. It’s not the longest we have gone as viewers without The Walking Dead universe content, but by the time The Walking Dead season 10 finale finally airs, it might be. To think: When 2020 began, AMC expected to air episodes from The Walking Dead universe for 40 straight weeks.
The bad news is this: We still don’t know when The Walking Dead will come back. The good news, however, is that we will soon find out. The announcement about when The Walking Dead season finale will air will be made at virtual Comic Con a week from now on July 24, according to showrunner Angela Kang, who said as much in response to a question in her Instagram comments.
While we don’t know the exact date, we can speculate, and my guess is that AMC has mapped out a new schedule for their The Walking Dead series. There’s one The Walking Dead episode left, there’s a few Fear the Walking Dead episodes that were shot before the pandemic arrived, and there is a whole season of The World Beyond that had been shot but still needed some post-production work to be completed on it. My guess is that the Fear the Walking Dead episodes that are ready to go will air in September or so and act as a lead-in to The World Beyond, which will air where The Walking Dead season 11 should have debuted in October. The Walking Dead season 10 finale will be used either to launch the next season of Fear the Walking Dead or, more likely, the new series, The World Beyond.
As for what we know heading into the season 10 finale? We know that Alpha is dead, and that Alexandria and their alliance will face off against Beta and a horde of zombies in the finale. They’re also weirdly holed up in Grady Memorial, the hospital that Beth was killed in, although clearly it is not supposed to be Grady Memorial. Meanwhile, there is some speculation that a major character may die in the finale, and some think that it could be Father Gabriel.
Meanwhile, while the season 10 finale should be wrapping up the Whisperer War, it will also set in motion the next chapter in The Walking Dead universe, the search for what Father Gabriel calls “the others.” Those others will include Maggie, who will be returning in the season 10 finale and thereafter. Meanwhile, Virgil — who helped to shepherd Michonne’s exit from the series — will return to The Oceanside and may become a more permanent member of that community. Elsewhere, Yumiko, Ezekiel, and Eugene are en route to meet a woman that Eugene has been communicating with on the radio, and they are bringing another new character, Princess, along with them.
We will also get to see what role Negan will get to play on the series moving ahead, especially in light of the return of Maggie, who nearly killed Negan in both the series and the comic book.
Elsewhere, Michonne is in search of Rick Grimes, whose spin-off movies are obviously still up in the air. Her journey, however, is likely to intersect with CRM, a military outfit that also appears to be overseeing the community in The Walking Dead spin-off, The World Beyond. In fact, The World Beyond explicitly ties into the Rick Grimes’ movie (The World Beyond is a limited two-season series, which could end by merging into the Rick Grimes’ movie).
There is clearly a lot going on, and most of it is immediately connected to the season 10 finale of The Walking Dead. One the TWD finale, the remaining episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, and the first season of The World Beyond air, however, it is unclear when we will get more new The Walking Dead content. The situation on the ground in both Georgia (where The Walking Dead shoots) and Texas (where Fear shoots) is not good, and it’s only marginally better (but not good) in Virginia, where The World Beyond films. One imagines, however, that Scott Gimple and the writers have all the scripts for the upcoming seasons written and ready to go, so when production finally does resume, AMC should be able to produce new episodes fairly quickly.
We will find out more about future plans for The Walking Dead universe on July 24th, when The Walking Dead, Fear and The World Beyond all host panels at virtual Comic Con, which will be remote and free to anyone who wants to watch.
