Saying goodbye is never easy to do, especially when you've starred on a TV show for 12 years.
Norman Reedus commemorated the last day of filming The Walking Dead season 11 by getting nostalgic with franchise executive producer Greg Nicotero. The longtime Walking Dead star, who plays crossbow-wielding Daryl Dixon in the zombie drama, confessed he was "short-circuiting" while trying to process the last day of production.
"I can't really wrap my head around this," Reedus said in a video posted to Nicotero's Instagram account. "I'll be on the bathroom floor with a martini and tears."
Reedus then took a moment to thank Nicotero, who also serves as a special make-up effects supervisor and director on the AMC hit, noting, "It's been a real joy."
And it seems that Reedus and Nicotero aren't the only ones feeling nostalgic, as several fans sent their well wishes to the cast and crew in the comments section of Nicotero's post.
For instance, Guns N' Roses musician Slash wrote, "F--k, I can't believe it's over. What an epic journey for one of the greatest and most original TV series ever!" Similarly, Matthew Negrete. who served as a writer and producer on The Walking Dead before becoming the showrunner for spin-off The Walking Dead: World Beyond, commented, "Wow wow wow wow. So surreal. All my best to all of you."
While this may be goodbye to the flagship Walking Dead series, Reedus' character won't be gone from our small screens for long. In September 2020, AMC confirmed that a spin-off centered on Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) was in the works with Angela Kang tapped as showrunner. The 2023-planned project is still untitled, but we assume it will follow the fan favorite characters following the events of the Walking Dead's series finale.
In July, Reedus promised that the spin-off "won't look anything like The Walking Dead."
"It won't look like an episode of Walking Dead with just Daryl and Carol," he shared with IMDB at the time. "It'll be completely different."
Of course, the Daryl-Carol spin-off isn't the only new series to look forward to, as Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are getting their own New York-based show, titled Isle of the Dead and debuting in 2023. So, we won't be escaping the dead just yet.