Don’t expect The Walking Dead to end like the comic did

The premiere of The Walking Dead season 10 is just around the corner. To celebrate, the show’s cast and crew hit the red carpet at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California on Monday. Variety was there, trying to get the scoop on the new season. They spoke with showrunner Angela Kang about the way Robert Kirkman abruptly ended his Walking Dead comic. Will that affect the way the show ends…if it ever does?

“Depending at the pace we go, it could be very fast at the end or it could be very slow,” Kang said. “We always fill in with original material. Robert [Kirkman] said to me and Scott Gimple, look at all these threads that I set up for you, so the story could go a million different ways.”

With TV’s Rick and Carl already out of the picture, there is no chance The Walking Dead show can mimic what happened in the comic. And that’s about all the spoilers you’re going to get from me.

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Kang wasn’t the only member of The Walking Dead family that Variety talked to. Norman Reedus stopped to talk about Daryl’s role in the upcoming season, and the people his character met over the previous nine seasons that helped shape him into the leader he is now. “They definitely have given me more to do in the last couple of years,” he said. “But Daryl the character has some of the same things that Norman the person does. It’s like the ghosts of the characters that lived in the show before Daryl, he carries the weight of them on his shoulders.”

"There are certain things that he’s learned from Herschel or Rick that are helping him make decisions on the show. Daryl without those characters would have made a bad decision. As Norman, I feel the weight of these great actors and actresses on my shoulder and I want to do a great job the same way that Daryl feels about the Herschels and the Ricks and the Shanes and the Glenns."

Daryl, if you didn’t know, isn’t in the comic at all, but has become a hugely important and beloved character on the series. Melissa McBride (Carol) praised Reedus’ growth as an actor.

"Norman is really behaving, and I’m sure it’s because of Andy’s [Lincoln] influence on him throughout the years. He was the leader, and now Norman is basically number one. It’s from the top down so it’s very important that Norman impart all those beautiful wisdoms that he’s learned from Andy onto everyone else. It sets the tone for everyone and how they treat one another on set. It’s important to the family."

Danai Gurira (Michonne) will only be part of season 10 for a few episodes before departing for good. Scott Gimple, chief content officer for The Walking Dead promises fans will be satisfied with how her story ends.

Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne, Antony Azor as RJ Grimes – The Walking Dead _ Season 10 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC

“It was one of the most important stories we were telling this season,” he said. “And Danai is a writer of note, so she’s always kept me honest. The thing that brings out the best in The Walking Dead is the pressure not to let people down. Not to let the cast and the crew down, but to tell stories that are worthy of their time and effort and so to have this kind of incredible story to tell for her final season, it’s a blessing.”

But will Michonne truly be gone? Or will she go the way of her on-screen lover Rick Grimes and make a couple of Walking Dead movies? “Rick is going to be our avatar once again to discovering a whole new world,” Gimple said of the upcoming films. “Yet we get to be with this character that we have loved and we get to see how everything he has been through is going to affect a brand new adventure and a brand new challenge for him.”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 16 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Okay, but you didn’t answer my question about Michonne, Scott. Whatever, it’s fine.

Maybe it’s a good thing Michonne is leaving, because Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s barb-wired baseball bat-wielding badass Negan is going to be set free from his cell and able to walk around Alexandria as a free man. You just know he’s going to suck up all the spotlight.

And hey, the Whisperers haven’t even met Negan yet. I can’t wait until they do. As for when he thinks The Walking Dead should end, Morgan’s got some interesting thoughts.

"You don’t want to run it into the ground. Me personally, I’d say let’s go out on top. Let’s go out still being the number one show in the world. Whether or not that happens, I don’t know. I think if we just stuck with the comic book, we’ve still got another three years. We do deviate a lot, but I think there’s probably a good three years of material there."

Angel Theory as Kelly, Lauren Ridloff as Connie, Kerry Cahill as Dianne, Dan Fogler as Luke, Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes Danai Gurira as Michonne, Nadia Hilker as Magna, Jackson Pace as Gage, Jerri Tubbs as Margo, Gustavo Gomez as Marco, Callan McAuliffe as Alden, Ross Marquand as Aaron – The Walking Dead _ Season 10, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Three years sounds about right. For now, critics are praising the season 10 premiere, so let’s see if the show can keep that positive vibe going.

The Walking Dead season 10 debuts on Sunday night, only on AMC.

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