"The Walking Dead" to End after Super-Sized 11th Season; Norman Reedus & Melissa McBride Spin-off Set for 2023
by Dominic Patten
September 9, 2020


The end is nigh for "The Walking Dead", sort of. The zombie apocalypse series based on Robert Kirkman’s comics is coming to an end in 2022 with an expanded 11th season.

However, fans of the once highest rated show on the small screen shouldn’t fret too much at the loss of the mother show. AMC has already given the go-ahead to a new TWD spinoff starring fan favorites Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride in their roles as Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier.

Created by TWD showrunner Angela Kang and Deadverse chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, that as yet untitled series is scheduled to debut in 2023.





As was announced at this year’s coronavirus induced virtual Comic-Con, 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.

Tearing a page out of the playbook that AMC used for the end of "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad", the 11th and final season of the once blockbuster TWD will run over two-years for a grand total of 24 episodes.





In addition to the upcoming Daryl and Carol series current spin-offs, "Fear the Walking Dead" is starting its sixth season on October 11th and the two-season long "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" launches October 4th.

AMC and Gimple are also developing a "Tales of The Walking Dead" anthology series. Episodic in format, "Tales" will likely focus on individual characters from the clearly expanding Deadverse, both new and old.

There are also the Rick Grimes big screen adventures, starring Andrew Lincoln, which are in the script stage at Universal.

https://deadline.com/2020/09/walking-dead-ends-norman-reedus-spinoff-melissa-mcbride-anthology-angela-kang-amc-robert-kirkman-1234573093/

Thanks to math, The Walking Dead now has an end date (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-and-keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-inside-the-end-of-two-mega-hits)

"Scripted series traditionally get more expensive as they age when factoring in things like cast and producer salaries and licensing fees," explains The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg of this week's announcement that The Walking Dead will end after a supersized Season 11 in late 2022 (https://www.primetimer.com/item/The-Walking-Dead-to-end-in-late-2022-with-a-supersized-Season-11-AMC-working-on-two-more-spinoffs-rPSKbx). "AMC's main source of revenue on the flagship series is ad revenue. While the zombie drama remains one of the most-watched programs on television, its ratings are a fraction of what they were during the show's heyday. And while the ratings have softened over the years — the season 10 finale was its lowest rated, ever — ad rates for the series have declined, too. What's more, the flagship drama's lucrative international rights are locked up via a decade-old deal with Fox International. In addition, the streaming rights to The Walking Dead were sold years ago to Netflix." As a source tells her, the only way for The Walking Dead to make money these days is with ad revenue. "By launching a new spinoff featuring The Walking Dead's two most popular characters, AMC will have the option to sell international and streaming rights to the series while also reducing the show's budget and licensing fees," says Goldberg. "The plan, say sources, for the Carol and Daryl spinoff and to end the show around season 11 was put in place well before former AMC president Charlie Collier — who originally greenlit The Waking Dead — departed the network in 2018. As for why seasons 10 and 11 added six and eight episodes, respectively, to their runs, that comes down to economics, too. So-called supersized seasons help keep things like actor salaries and the show's overall budgets the same. (Taken together, the extra 14 episodes could have become a 12th season, triggering things like salary increases.)"

The Walking Dead's Daryl and Carol spinoff will be "more of a road show" (https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-daryl-carol-spinoff-norman-reedus-melissa-mcbride-angela-kang/)

“They're going to be off on a different journey,” says showrunner Angela Kang. “And that show's going to feel hopefully a little tonally fresh. They're just in a different stage of their lives and it's more of a road show, which I think will be really fun.”

^ Norman Reedus is an avid biker, even has a reality show where he goes biking, so this is right up his alley.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond is simply not very good (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-tv-review)

"Timing and brand equity play a big role in the success or failure of any spinoff," says Daniel Fienberg. "If The Walking Dead: World Beyond had premiered maybe five years ago, my review probably would have been something along the lines of, 'It's not very good, but I'm invested enough in the show's world that a glimpse of a different corner of that world inherently interests me.' Heck, I made it through nearly two seasons of Fear the Walking Dead on residual curiosity, and even then I didn't make it to the point where people I trust allege that it got good, or at least better. But Fear the Walking Dead numbed some of my engrossment and the wheel-spinning of the Walking Dead mothership blunted most of the rest. Spinoffs require runway and World Beyond, which has no direct narrative or character connections to The Walking Dead, has basically none. It just isn't very good."

ALSO:


Walking Dead: World Beyond is "undead" on arrival (https://tvline.com/2020/09/21/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-review-amc-spinoff-crm/): "The siblings and their guy pals are yin and yang stereotypes written in what the kids in The Breakfast Club would’ve dismissed as 'the simplest terms," says Charlie Mason. "Future conflicts and revelations are telegraphed with all the subtlety of pianos being dropped on our heads. And at the end of the hour, I just didn’t care what happened to any of the main characters."
World Beyond shows potential (https://variety.com/2020/tv/reviews/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-tv-review-1234773575/): "This is not a perfect series: The shots of the undead often look cheap and the rules of how these monsters are evaded have never felt more loosely applied," says Daniel D'Addario. "And yet there’s a willingness to reinvent, to genuinely probe a corner of the universe previously untouched, that makes this series feel serious in its intent and, for fans of the forerunning series, well worth checking out. Its willingness to place two young women at its center, and to make their emotional response to family upheaval the story of the apocalypse, shows a curiosity worth crediting."


The Walking Dead's Daryl and Carol spinoff is being referred to as "The Daryl and Carol Show" (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-10-01/the-walking-dead-season-10-world-beyond-scot-gimple-angela-kang)

The Norman Reedus/Melissa McBride spinoff doesn't yet have a title, but Walking Dead chief creative officer Scott Gimple has taken to calling it The Daryl and Carol Show. “With Daryl and Carol, I can’t say too much about it, but I will say it’s going to be very different from The Walking Dead, going to have a different tone. It’s going to have a different mission churning under it. There will be characters all around Carol and Daryl. And, of course, the musical numbers,” Gimple said, smiling mischievously.

"The Walking Dead’s" Melissa McBride Exits Spin-off Series
by Denise Petski, Dominic Patten
April 27, 2022


Melissa McBride, who has starred as Carol in "The Walking Dead" since the series launch, will not be part of a planned untitled spin-off slated for 2023. The so-called Carol-Daryl spin-off was to be focused on her and Norman Reedus’ TWD characters.

“Melissa McBride has given life to one of the most interesting, real, human and popular characters in The Walking Dead Universe. Unfortunately, she is no longer able to participate in the previously announced spin-off focused on the Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier characters, which will be set and filmed in Europe this summer and premiere next year. Relocating to Europe became logistically untenable for Melissa at this time.

We know fans will be disappointed by this news, but The Walking Dead Universe continues to grow and expand in interesting ways and we very much hope to see Carol again in the near future,” AMC said in a statement Wednesday.

https://deadline.com/2022/04/walking-dead-melissa-mcbride-exits-spinoff-series-1235011282/

Jeffrey Dean Morgan calls out "toxic" Walking Dead fans who are blaming Norman Reedus for Melissa McBride's exit from spinoff series (https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/walking-dead-jeffrey-dean-morgan-melissa-norman-b2068181.html)

Originally, no reason was given for McBride leaving the Daryl and Carol spinoff series. But AMC later clarified that it became an issue of logistics since McBride didn't want to film in Europe. Yet Reedus got the blame for her exit on social media. “Some of you have gone WAY too far,” Morgan tweeted (https://twitter.com/JDMorgan/status/1519920901172649984) last night. “TOXIC. Attacking norm for crap he has NOTHING to do with? Melissa made a call that was hers alone. She wants/needs a break. Respect that. “Factors involved that are nobody’s business. Norm, who’s given more than anyone to you all. Just S****Y.”

Norman Reedus on Melissa McBride’s Exit from TWD Spin-off: “She Wanted to Take Some Time Off”
by Denise Petski
May 3, 2022


Norman Reedus is opening up about his longtime "The Walking Dead" co-star Melissa McBride’s decision to exit the upcoming planned spin-off, in which she was to star along with Reedus.

Appearing Monday on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", Reedus said McBride is taking a much needed break. “Twelve years is a grueling schedule and she wanted to take some time off, so she’s doing that. She deserves it,” said the actor.




Reedus also hinted he doesn’t feel it’s the end for McBride’s “Carol” character.

“I imagine those characters are gonna meet back up at some point and I might even meet up with some other characters down the road,” he said. “But she’s taking time off and in the meantime, they were like, ‘Hey, you wanna go on a mission?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah! Let’s go on a mission.'”

https://deadline.com/2022/05/norman-reedus-melissa-mcbrides-walking-dead-exit-she-wanted-to-take-some-time-off-1235015315/