AMC's flagship series The Walking Dead is ending in 2022, but a new episodic anthology Tales of the Walking Dead will accommodate for its absence. The long-running post-apocalyptic-horror series, which is based on Robert Kirkman's comics of the same name, debuted over a decade ago, depicting the tale of an ensemble cast's survival amid a zombie apocalypse. In the show, the lead crew struggled to survive in a dystopian environment where it was faced by attacks from zombies (walkers) and from other sinister survivors. The Walking Dead was a smash hit on AMC, and due to its commercially receptive stature, it expanded to encompass an entire universe of sequels, spin-offs, films, parodies, and spoofs. And now that the show is ending, it's spawning off more projects to keep its legacy alive.
The Walking Dead has precipitated several spin-offs in the past. In 2015, the show gave rise to a companion series, Fear The Walking Dead, which was set in L.A. and along the west coast of the US and Mexico. The zombie-ravaged spin-off crossovered with The Walking Dead through the character Morgan James (Lennie James), who joined Fear the Walking Dead after wrapping up the eighth season of the original show. Another Walking Dead spin-off series, The Walking Dead: World Beyond is due to premiere next month. It will focus on the first generation children who have grown up amid the zombie apocalypse. The expansion of the zombie-horror franchise is yet, not showing any signs of mitigation, as more spin-offs are expected to follow the original series' conclusion.
As it has been revealed in an official AMC press-release, The Walking Dead will soon get another spin-off in the form of the episodic anthology series 'Tales of the Walking Dead'. The new show will feature a new roster of characters in each episode, and they will be pitted against a new adventure every time. The characters in Tales of the Walking Dead will either be new or they'll be existing figures from within The Walking Dead-verse, and the narratives that the show will explore will also include both backstories and stand-alone tales. It is currently not known when the new show will arrive at AMC, but it is being speculated that characters from all three Walking Dead shows will crossover in Tales of the Walking Dead.
As also revealed by AMC, The Walking Dead is due to wrap up in 2022 with an extended season 11. The show's final innings will span 24 episodes and will be telecast across two years. Recently, The Walking Dead was in production for its season 10 when the coronavirus pandemic erupted, delaying the season finale. The episode will now air in early 2021, along with an additional six episodes that have been added to the tenth season. There are therefore 31 episodes of The Walking Dead that are still to be broadcasted. But after that, two new spin-offs, including one focusing on Daryl and Carol, will satisfy viewers' cravings for gory human vs. zombie action.
The end of the notorious, long-running The Walking Dead has sparked off mixed reactions among fans. While some are relieved that the show is ending without a further decline in quality, some are teary-eyed over their favorite series' end. Tales of the Walking Dead, however, offers its franchise's sentimental fanbase to connect with their beloved characters once again. Individual episodes of Tales can tie together the loose ends that The Walking Dead left unaddressed, and the scope of some missing characters can also be highlighted. Tales of the Walking Dead can also explore new zombie-infested territories while delving deeper into the several factors that rendered the world in chaos in the first place.
Source: AMC