The end is nigh for The Walking Dead. The post-apocalyptic drama will conclude in 2022 following its super-sized eleventh season. Here’s the thing, though – while the parent series will come to a close, the franchise will continue on in rude health. There are various spinoffs already in the works, including those Andrew Lincoln movies, a vehicle for Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride and anthology show Tales of the Walking Dead.Â
With that in mind, the season 11 – and series – finale won’t just act as a conclusion but also a set-up for what’s to come. And in this way, it’ll establish a new lead character for the TWD universe. According to insider Daniel Richtman, in fact, the final run will tee up Judith as the franchise’s future protagonist. That’s all Richtman had to say about this bit of intel right now, but we can assume this means she’ll get her own spinoff at some point and also cross over to other projects.
Of course, the last issue of the comics series skipped forward a few decades and followed a grown-up Carl living in a mostly healed world where walkers were practically extinct. With Carl long dead on TV, though, we can presumably expect Judith to fill this role instead. Or they could do something entirely different with her. Again, Richtman doesn’t offer specifics and only says that she’ll be teed up as the franchise’s new lead moving forward.
In any case, there’s a still a while to go before we have to face the end of the show, and The Walking Dead is about to premiere six new episodes of season 10 starting Sunday, February 28th on AMC. Don’t miss it.
