AMC is announcing that The Walking Dead is coming to an end. The show will conclude after a two-year eleventh season that will span 24 episodes in all. With six more season 10 episodes coming this year and next, that means that there are still 30 episodes remaining. The series will conclude in late 2022.
In other words, there is still plenty of The Walking Dead left, and even when the series leaves the air, The Walking Dead will continue on with a spin-off focused on the popular Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) characters. That series will debut in early 2023, and Angela Kang — who currently runs The Walking Dead — will also run the spin-off.
Moreover, there will be no shortage of The Walking Dead, as AMC also greenlit Tales of the Walking Dead, an episodic anthology from Scott Gimple with individual episodes or arcs of episodes focused on new or existing characters, backstories or other stand-alone experiences. And no plans have been announced ending Fear the Walking Dead, while the limited series, The Walking Dead: The World Beyond, will also run for two seasons.
AMC doesn’t say as much, but it’s likely that the end of The Walking Dead and The World Beyond will be capped with the Rick Grimes movies. It all makes some sense in the grand scheme, because Robert Kirkman’s source material will run out soon. My guess is that The Walking Dead and the Rick Grimes movie will essentially use up the remaining source material, while the Carol and Daryl spin-off will allow the universe to reset, so to speak, with two (and possibly more existing characters to go along with a fresh new cast).
In other words, The Walking Dead may be leaving us in two years, but The Walking Dead universe will be around for a long time to come.
