While it would be a bit unfair to say that The Walking Dead is in trouble, it’s certainly far from its heyday. Season 7 got off to an electrifying, if controversial, start, but since then it’s been a rather dull journey, full of boring subplots, extended runtimes that wasted their extra minutes and too much focus being placed on characters that we just don’t care about. A few truly exciting moments have punctuated the first half of season 7, but mostly, it’s been quite underwhelming.
Thankfully, the cast and crew have noticed this and are working towards turning things around for when the show returns to AMC in February. For one, we’ve been promised more levity in the second half of the season, which will no doubt please many, and the last episode before The Walking Dead went on hiatus, “Hearts Still Beating,” teed up what looks to be an exciting, all-out war between Rick and co. and the Saviors.
Whether the uber-popular series can pick back up remains to be seen, but with an eighth season already confirmed for later this year, it doesn’t look like it’ll be going anywhere any time soon. That’s a sentiment that Robert Kirkman, who created the comic that the show is based on, echoed recently.
In the Letter Hacks section of issue #162 of the comic, he said that he doesn’t know how long The Walking Dead will last on television, but he’s hoping for at least 10 seasons.
“No telling how long the show will last. Very hopeful we will last to Season 10 and beyond.”
There’s definitely enough source material to fill up another couple of years, as the show is only at about issue #111 of the comic, but will the ratings warrant it continuing on for that long? That’s a tricky question to answer. The Walking Dead may be experiencing a dip in popularity compared to previous seasons, but it’s still by far one of the most watched shows on television at the moment, which means that AMC probably won’t want to bring it to an end. At least, not in the near future.
Our guess is that Kirkman will get his wish. With season 8 already confirmed, seeing an additional two more outings for The Walking Dead after that doesn’t seem too outside the realm of possibility. After all, there are a lot of great moments and storylines from the comics that still need to be adapted, and while this season’s certainly been a bit slow, the second half does look promising.
With an explosive battle about to go down, the show should be able to close things out on a positive note. And even if it doesn’t, does it really matter? If viewers have stuck with it this long, through the many, many ups and downs, they probably won’t be jumping ship at this point.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, February 12 at 9pm.
