While The Walking Dead season 11 won't be happening as planned, AMC is making the most of the situation. As announced during the show's Comic-Con@Home panel, season 10 of the hit zombie series will be getting an extension. The current season will be airing an additional six episodes, which are expected to arrive in early 2021.
The reveal was made by executive producer and showrunner Angela Kang during The Walking Dead Comic-Con@Home panel. The original season finale, titled A Certain Doom, was the main topic of discussion. It was originally set to air back in April. However, it was in the middle of post-production when the production shutdown went into effect, which prevented it from being finished on time. The episode will instead air as a one-off special this fall. When discussing the current status of season 11, Kang had the following to say.
"The writer's room for season 11 has been going remotely for the past few months. We haven't been able to start production but we will get back to work as soon as we safely can, and we will not be airing season 11 episodes this year as we normally would in October. But, we're excited to announce an extended season 10, and there will be six extra episodes to follow the finale. Those will run in early 2021, if all goes well. We're working on those now and we'll have more to share soon."
AMC had aired 15 episodes of the current season before they had to pause the schedule. That means, counting the upcoming one-off special, The Walking Dead season 10 will consist of 22 episodes. That will make it easily the longest season of the series to date. It also means that we likely won't see season 11 premiere until fall 2021, essentially pushing it back a full year from when it otherwise would have aired. But the additional episodes will help fill the void for fans.
The panel was hosted by Talking Dead's Chris Hardwick. Aside from Angela Kang, The Walking Dead universe chief content officer Scott M. Gimple participated, as did executive producer Greg Nicotero, who directed A Certain Doom. Cast members such as Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton, and Paola Lazaro were on hand as well. The Walking Dead Season 10 sneak peek also debuted during the panel.
More than a decade into the show's run, AMC is looking to expand the universe in a big way. Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 trailer also debuted at Comic-Con. And a new spin-off, Walking Dead: World Beyond, is also set to debut this fall. Plus, we have the previously announced trilogy of movies centered on Rick Grimes, which will bring back Andrew Lincoln in the role, still in the works. The Walking Dead season 10's original finale will air on October 4. We'll be sure to keep you posted as any further details are made available. In the meantime, be sure to keep up with the rest of our coverage throughout the weekend of Comic-Con@Home.