THE WALKING DEAD
THE DEAD DON'T DIE
MAY OFFICIALLY BE COMING TO AN END, BUT FANS GOT MORE THAN THEY BARGAINED FOR WHEN A REAL-LIFE WORLDWIDE CRISIS HIT AND DELIVERED NEW EPISODES
WORDS: DARREN SCOTT
FTHERE’S ONE THING WE’VE LEARNED from AMC’s global juggernaut it’s that the dead don’t stay dead. And that’s true of The Walking Dead – specifically the tenth season which, after a six-month delay for the original finale episode, “A Certain Doom”, has lurched back into life yet again, lumbering to screens this month.
An “extension” that plays off the aftermath of what was intended to be the 16th and final part, six new episodes take season 10 to a whopping 22 chapters.
When we catch up with showrunner and executive producer Angela Kang, she’s taking a short break from working on material for the Daryl and Carol spin-off, as well as the upcoming 11th season, to chat with us.
“I’ll say that, just to set the expectations, these six that are upcoming, they are more intimate, but that doesn’t mean that they’re unimportant,” she explains. “There’s definitely really important character things that are happening, as well as plot dynamics that will then explode back into more scope in season 11.”
So why the extension and ultimate delay to a “proper” season? Well, that’s kind of obvious.
“When the pandemic hit, we were already in the middle of planning out the 11th season. But that, obviously, disrupted production for everybody. We were in the middle of writing outlines and scripts and departments were working on designs, were building things.”