The Walking Dead season 10 is getting six extra episodes, but what does that mean for the show’s Commonwealth story? Before all the coronavirus-related production delays happened, it was understood that The Walking Dead’s 16-episode season 10 would conclude the Whisperer War and lead into the Commonwealth in the finale, but that plan has since changed.
The schedules for all three shows in the Walking Dead universe have been complicated by the coronavirus pandemic. In March, filming for Fear the Walking Dead season 6 was delayed, and the series premiere of Walking Dead: World Beyond was supposed to air on April 12 but was pushed back indefinitely. It was originally set to air on the same night was The Walking Dead season 10 finale. However, AMC had to end season 10 with episode 15, and they announced that they would air the finale on its own sometime in 2020. An air date of October 4 was finally confirmed during The Walking Dead's virtual panel at Comic-Con@Home.
It was also confirmed during Comic-Con@Home that AMC has extended season 10 by six episodes, bringing the total episode count to 22. That’s more episodes than any other season of The Walking Dead. Even so, the upcoming episode 16 is still being referred to as the “season finale”. The six extra episodes will be released in early 2021 and will likely focus on the show’s Commonwealth story. It’s important to note that the season 10 finale has already been filmed, so the six-episode extension doesn’t mean that The Walking Dead will be adding on to its Whisperer War arc.
The extra six episodes means that The Walking Dead may have a different story structure than what was originally going to happen in season 11. Based on where episode 15 was going with Eugene (Joshua McDermitt), Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), and Princess (Paola Lazara), it appeared that the highly-anticipated first in-person meeting with representatives from the Commonwealth was about to happen in the finale. With that in mind, it would seem that The Walking Dead was planning on making the Commonwealth the focus of season 11. Instead, it can use the six new season 10 episodes to go a bit deeper with this community before their official introduction in season 11.
The discovery of a huge, new network of communities will be a game-changer for The Walking Dead, so getting all the characters involved, taking them over there, and exploring their reaction to it is sure to take time. The storyline with Rick’s group joining Alexandria in The Walking Dead season 5 was like that as well, albeit on a smaller scale. So it would make sense for the rest of season 10 in 2021 to be a six-episode introduction to this new community, and that would allow season 11 to dive into what happens after they’ve already had time to meet the various characters who live there. Then by the time The Walking Dead season 11 begins, the people of Alexandria and Hilltop may have developed at least a limited understanding of how this new society works. Since the setup will already be done, season 11 can tell a more focused Commonwealth story.