The Walking Dead to end after upcoming 11th season

The Walking Dead may be ending after an extended 11th season, but the series will live on in a variety of spin-offs and feature films.

The Walking Dead is the one current TV show where you could consistently see people wearing T-shirts and selling wares bearing character and creature likenesses at horror conventions. It latched on to a particular type of monster at an opportune time, and rode it to great success for parent station AMC. It also scored a coup when it snared cult favorite Norman Reedus (The Boondock Saints) for the role of Daryl Dixon.

But even with ratings and merchandising success, certain things remain as inevitable as the zombie hordes overtaking human survivors, and after its upcoming 11th season, The Walking Dead will be calling it quits.

Deadline provided the details on the show’s forthcoming end:

"“…the pandemic-delayed TWD Season 10 finale will now air as a special episode on October 4 with 10 additional episodes to air in 2021 for the current cycle. The 11th and final season of the once-blockbuster TWD will run over two-years for a grand total of 24 episodes.“"

All said, this isn’t a bad deal for fans of the long-running series. In the cases of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, AMC brought those shows to their own epic conclusions, leading to two of the most memorable series in television history.

More from The Walking Dead

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• Joe Bob and The Last Drive-In present first episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City
• New trailer released for The Walking Dead: Dead City
• AMC: Big announcements made at WonderCon for The Walking Dead spinoffs

Furthermore, the ever-expanding Walking Dead universe will march on, with Fear the Walking Dead returning for its sixth season on October 11. The brand-new spin-off, World Beyond (which is planned for a two-season run), will open its doors to audiences on October 4.

On top of that, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) will be making his way to the big screen for a trilogy of features, which, according to Deadline, are currently at the script stage at Universal.

But perhaps most exciting for the TWD faithful is the announcement of a series focusing on Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride), two characters who’ve been longtime fan favorites. (Indeed, Reedus was a huge draw at horror cons in the pre-COVID days.)  While this iteration of the zombie mythos hasn’t yet been graced with a title, its premiere is scheduled for 2023.

So, for a series that’s spent 11 seasons focused on the undead, it’s still showing an awful lot of life on the horizon.

How do you feel about The Walking Dead ending after 11 seasons? Let us know in the comments.