Timing of The Walking Dead news raises questions

Why did AMC announce the end of The Walking Dead before October 4?

Let’s face it: The timing of AMC’s big announcement about The Walking Dead’s future is weird. A day after the announcement was made, fans were left scratching their heads at how the whole thing went down. The Walking Dead coming to an end is suddenly less interesting than the way it happened, the unknown reasons why it’s happening and how the cast seems to have been notified.

For months now, The Walking Dead fans have been getting excited for the season 10 finale after the pandemic interrupted life as we knew it. In July, AMC announced the finale’s air date in October, but now news of the show’s ending seems to have eclipsed excitement for the season finale. With only a few short weeks until the finale, why make such a huge announcement now? Why not wait until fans have been able to enjoy the finale that they have been waiting for since April?

The news came out early in the morning when a news outlet accidentally released a tweet ahead of the embargo that revealed almost everything. Naturally, people had screen grabs of the tweet so that even when it was deleted it was too late. The cat was out of the bag. In the subsequent hours fans wondered if it was a hoax or real, and as soon as it was confirmed the questions started mounting.

After some consideration, it appears possible that AMC planned to end the show in season 12 already (which means it would have filmed in 2021 and aired in 2021 and 2022), but COVID-19 forced them to change the filming schedule to cram season 11 and 12 together.

A likely culprit of the decision could be contract negotiations. If cast members were contracted through season 12, which should have filmed in 2021, then AMC might need to renegotiate to have them available in 2022 since season 11 filming hasn’t even started yet and will definitely spill over into 2021. With that in mind, it would be easier to extend season 11, finish filming in 2021 and release everyone from their contracts rather than try to renegotiate, especially if season 12 would have been the end anyway.

An interesting side note is that with the Carol and Daryl spin-off, along with the anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead, the TWD actors who will be joining the other shows could start filming in 2022 so that the new episodes are ready in 2023.

Unfortunately, though, the cast was notified of the news almost at the same time as the fans. It’s surprising and bizarre to think AMC wouldn’t give them a head’s up, which only leads to more questions.

What do you think about the timing of AMC’s announcement? Let us know in the comments!