AMCIt's the end of an era. Sort of.
AMC announced on Wednesday, Sept. 9, that The Walking Dead will end after season 11, though the end of season 11 won't be coming for a while. There's also another spinoff on the way, so let's all be honest here and just admit The Walking Dead will never really end.
Season 11, which will technically be the last of the original series, will be expanded to last two years and 24 episodes long. Season 10 isn't even over yet, with six more episodes coming in 2021. That means there are a full 30 episodes left, and those will be followed by yet another spinoff focused on the two best remaining characters with rhyming names: Carol and Daryl.
That spinoff has already been ordered to series and will premiere in 2023, run by current Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang. It will follow Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) after they presumably survive the end of The Walking Dead.
As if that weren't enough, AMC is also developing a series called Tales of the Walking Dead, which is an episodic anthology focused on, according to AMC, "new or existing characters, backstories or other stand-alone experiences."
That series will be helmed by TWD chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, who is also working on "a number of other new and innovative projects" in the Walking Dead universe.
Gimple elaborated on the future of the franchise in a statement.
"It's been ten years ‘gone bye;' what lies ahead are two more to come and stories and stories to tell beyond that," he said. "What's clear is that this show has been about the living, made by a passionate cast, team of writer/producers, producers, and crew, bringing to life the vision put forth by Robert Kirkman in his brilliant comic—and supported by the best fans in the world. We have a lot of thrilling story left to tell on TWD, and then, this end will be a beginning of more Walking Dead—brand new stories and characters, familiar faces and places, new voices, and new mythologies. This will be a grand finale that will lead to new premieres. Evolution is upon us. The Walking Dead lives."
Kang expressed her excitement about continuing on with Carol and Daryl in her own statement.
"I look forward to digging in with our brilliant writers, producers, directors, cast and crew to bring this epic final chapter of Robert Kirkman's story to life for our fans over the next two years," she said. "The Walking Dead flagship series has been my creative home for a decade and so it's bittersweet to bring it to an end, but I could not be more excited to be working with Scott Gimple and AMC to develop a new series for Daryl and Carol. Working with Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride has been a highlight of my career and I'm thrilled that we get to keep telling stories together."
Beyond these newly announced series, AMC had already announced that a series of movies about Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is also in development, and a limited series spinoff The Walking Dead: World Beyond is premiering Oct. 4.
The midseason finale of season 10, which was delayed due to the pandemic, will also air Oct. 4 and will feature Lauren Cohan's return as Maggie. Fear the Walking Dead returns for season six on Oct. 11.
Basically, the world of The Walking Dead will continue on until the zombie apocalypse actually comes for us all.