AMC's The Walking Dead is coming to an end with a super-sized, 24-episode final season, and now we know when that season is going to begin airing. The teaser trailer embedded above reveals a premiere date of August 22.
AMC has said that the season will kick off with "eight new episodes", so this season is probably going to air in three separate parts instead of the usual two. These blocks of episodes are expected to be spaced out far enough that the finale won't air until "late 2022".
Showrunner Angela Kang said,
Coming off of the six additional episodes for Season 10, which focused on smaller, character-driven stories, we're excited to kick off Season 11 bigger than ever. The stakes will be high – we'll see more zombies, tons of action, intriguing new stories, never-before-seen locations and our groups together in one community for the first time, trying to rebuild what the Whisperers took from them."
Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer of the Walking Dead Universe, added:
The final chapter of The Walking Dead begins with eight action-packed episodes that will feature the massive scope and scale fans have come to expect from TWD Universe, and I'm thrilled to share that fans won't have to wait long for these incredible new episodes to debut this summer."
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan on the show, recently told Collider that he was completely surprised to hear the news that The Walking Dead will be ending with season 11, and he indicated that Kang and Gimple were surprised by AMC's decision as well.
The news, when we got it in the middle of the pandemic, was a complete surprise, not only to me and the rest of the actors, but to everybody involved in the show from production. Scott Gimple and Angela Kang had no idea either. It came from nowhere and there was such a huge pivot. I think they had Season 11 all mapped out, where they were going to go, and suddenly it became, ‘We also have to close the story, in a way.’ It took everybody by surprise, so it was a massive pivot. And then, they threw in the six tacked-on episodes to Season 10, and instead of doing 16, we’re going to do 24 more. There was a lot of stuff to wrap our heads around."
The Hollywood Report revealed that the decision came after "months of deliberations" at AMC, where executives were debating whether to end the show after season 11 or season 12. This was something that had been brewing for a while, though. According to the trade, AMC was planning to end the show "around season 11" even before former AMC president Charlie Collier left the network in 2018. The reason:
AMC's main source of revenue on the flagship series is ad revenue. While the zombie drama remains one of the most-watched programs on television, its ratings are a fraction of what they were during the show's heyday. And while the ratings have softened over the years — the series recently notched a string of series lows — ad rates for the drama have declined, too. What's more, the flagship drama's lucrative international rights are locked up via a decade-old deal with Fox International. In addition, the streaming rights to The Walking Dead were sold years ago to Netflix.
When The Walking Dead wraps up, it's going to be followed by a spin-off series that centers on the characters Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus). With this new show,
AMC will have the option to sell international and streaming rights to the series while also reducing the budget and licensing fees.
So it sounds like this was a clever financial decision.
In addition to The Walking Dead and the upcoming Carol and Daryl spin-off, the Walking Dead Universe also includes Fear the Walking Dead, another season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, and an in-development anthology series called Tales of the Walking Dead.
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