AMC Studios was well represented down at Hall H during Comic-Con today. Deadline reports the mothership series, The Walking Dead, made its last appearance while a new era of the franchise premiered its first look.
Premiering back in 2010, The Walking Dead announced its final eight episodes would come on October 2nd, via Deadline, wrapping the main series’ story based on Robert Kirkman’s (Invincible) classic comic book. Its eleventh season received an extended 24-episode order, splitting the show into three volumes of eight episodes each. The first premiered on August 22 of last year with the second coming on February 20th. Fans and press who made it inside the room witnessed the first look of the end in an exclusive trailer. View the nearly three-minute video below.
Deadline stated the panel was a mix of creatives and cast members including Angela Kang (Terriers), current series showrunner and executive producer; Special Effects/Makeup Supervisor Greg Nicotero (Creepshow); and, The Walking Dead’s Chief Content Officer, Scott M. Gimple (Fillmore!). They were joined by season one castmates Norman Reedus (Sky) and Melissa McBride (Broken Moment), Seth Gilliam (The Wire), Josh McDermitt (Life in Color), Lauren Ridloff (Marve’s Eternals), Micahel James Shaw (Blood & Treasure), Cailey Fleming (Peppermint), and Ross Marquand (Avengers: Endgame). The panel was led by longtime The Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick (Back at the Barnyard).
The epic final season will see who will survive the bloody battle between this world’s survivors and the mounting strength of the Commonwealth.
As this series comes to an end, the universe will continue in a whole new show seeking to showcase multiple narratives within TWD world. According to Deadline, the previously announced Tales of the Walking Dead premiered its first trailer at panel that included Gimple, showrunner and EP Channing Powell (Fear the Walking Dead), director Michael Satrazemis (Blast), and cast members Terry Crews (America’s Got Talent), Samantha Morton (Harlots), and Danny Ramirez (Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier). View the new trailer below.
In the series, each episode will tell a different story connected to the country’s collapse amidst a virus that turns humans into flesh-eating zombies aka “walkers.” Gimple told panel moderator Hardwick that the series was formed to answer “all the questions from fans” about other intricacies of the existing world they created. New characters with high-stake motivations and dilemmas bring a freshness to the decade-long storytelling machine.
Tales of the Walking Dead is just one spinoff planned with a series featuring Reedus’s Darryl Dixon and a show starring Lauren Cohen and Jeffery Dean Morgan’s characters Maggie and Negan, respectively. Tales of the Walking Dead begins on August 14 on AMC and AMC+.
But wait. There’s more.
Hall H occupants received a surprise when the franchise’s Rick Grimes and Michonne made a surprise appearance to announce a new limited series. Deadline confirms Andrew Lincoln (Love, Actually) and Danai Gurira (Marvel’s Black Panther) will return to the roles in a series to finish the two character’s arcs. The developing Lincoln-focused film has been scrapped. The original plans were to end Sheriff Lincoln’s story in a movie that eyed Craig Zobel (The Hunt) directing and Universal Studios producing.
“I can’t wait to get my cowboy boots back on,” Lincoln told the packed crowd via Deadline.
The six-episode series will be “an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world,” as described by Deadline. Gimple will showrun the series with both Lincoln and Gurira serving as executive producers. The limited series is set for a premiere sometime next year.