The Walking Dead’s Melissa McBride On The “Unexpected” Finale And Season 9

The Walking Dead season 8 has been described as many things by many people – bloated, exhilarating and at-times infuriating…to name but three.

It’s a reception that has been reflected in the official ratings, too, which have spent the past number of months vacillating between solid and downright atrocious – not since season 1 has The Walking Dead posted a score below 3.0 among the 18-49 demographic, though the show’s viewership has been rising steadily ever since “The Key,” which certainly bodes well for April’s season finale.

Speaking of which, Melissa McBride recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly (h/t ComicBook.com) to discuss the “unexpected” curtain call – for this season, anyway – and why she’s already mulling over season 9.

What can I say about the finale? It’s a little unexpected. Yeah, I would agree with Norman, but also when I read it I was like: ‘Well, that’s a turn, that’s a twist. Huh? Okay, then what?’ I was kinda like: ‘Whoa, wait. Okay, wait, okay, then what?’ So I’m really anxious for season nine because I want to know what [happens].

That Norman being Norman Reedus, of course, who recently previewed all of the many twists and turns that make up season 8’s super-sized finale, “Wrath.” Not only that, but it’ll bring this year’s installment of The Walking Dead to a close in an overly satisfying fashion.

There are four things that happen that could be the finale, and they all go off at once at the same time. They head in different directions, and they’re all individually as good as the next, and they’re all very, very satisfying. I like that about it. I like that it’s not just one person’s story. There are probably four, maybe five, different directions that the show could’ve ended on and it went in all of them. It’s very satisfying.

And we’re only three weeks away from watching “Wrath” unfold. Closer to home, “Still Gotta Mean Something” is expected to force Rick and Morgan into uncharted territory on Easter Sunday (April 1st), before AMC begin laying the groundwork for the long-in-the-works crossover between The Walking Dead and its sister series, Fear The Walking Dead, which is about to extend a warm welcome to the haunted Morgan Jones.