The final season of The Walking Dead is already in production (in fact, we’ve already seen a glimpse of the Wall of the Lost) and is expected to continue shooting for all of 2021. The 24-episode final season also won’t end until the end of 2022 (although, it will debut this summer).
As such, the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, is not yet mourning the loss of the series because there’s still so much left to see. Kirkman, who is currently out promoting his new Amazon series, Invincible, doesn’t seem to be that involved in the final season. He wrote the source material, and he trusts showrunner Angela Kang to handle the rest. “This is something that Angela Kang is working really hard on crafting,” Kirkman told Comicbook.com.
“I have had some vague conversations with Scott [Gimple] and Angela about the direction and how things are going to wrap up, and what aspects of the comic they may or may not be using,” Kirkman said. “But I think that it is, still somewhat in flux and I’m very excited to see what Angela does and I’m very confident that she’s gonna do something amazing because that’s what she does.”
Meanwhile, the Rick Grimes movie will eventually go into production, as well. The last we heard, it was expected to begin production in spring 2022, although it’s unclear if that is still the case. In either respect, in his interview with Comicbook.com, Kirkman did elucidate on the differences we can expect between the series and the Rick Grimes movie:
“I think that the show is very much an ensemble story and this is very much Rick story. So, I think being able to focus more on Rick as a character and do more with him is really cool. I think it’s gonna be a very different kind of Walking Dead story, which is really exciting. You know, when you’re doing something like this you have to make sure that it makes sense for it to be a movie. This isn’t just some kind of expansion of what you’re expecting from the show. This is something that’s gonna be very different but it’s gonna be the Rick Grimes that we all know and love. And I’m very excited for people to finally see it when it’s released in 2032.”
Kirkman had a hand in the script, so he obviously knows the course that the movie is taking. If it is a “Rick” story, however, I wonder if Michonne will still make an appearance, or if her storyline will sputter out? I would also like to know if there are still plans for three Rick Grimes movies, as before, or if AMC has scaled back its plans, especially in the wake of the pandemic?
While the future of the franchise is still very much up in the air, Season Ten continues on this weekend with the penultimate episode of a season that began way back in 2019. Kirkman’s Invincible, meanwhile, premieres this Friday on Amazon.
Source: Comicbook.com