Norman Reedus: The Walking Dead season 11 goes in “mind-blowing” direction

The Walking Dead cast and crew have been busy at work on the show’s final season, which will air episodes throughout the next year before finally ending at some point in 2022. There will be a total of 24 episodes to wrap up the decade-long story of humans dealing with a zombie apocalypse, and facing the harsh realities of life that come after society falls.

The first of three batches of new episodes will begin airing on August 22 on AMC. There’s a lot of character stuff to wrap up, starting with the tension between Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who have not had to cross paths since Negan brutally murdered Maggie’s husband Glen (Steven Yuen).

“It’s kind of mind-blowing where we’re going,” he told ComicBook.com. “We did the first ten episodes kind of in one direction, and that involved Maggie’s story mostly, and us trying to deal with what’s going on with that as a group. And then all of a sudden, we did a one-eighty, and now it’s kind of like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory all of a sudden.”

The Walking Dead season 11 will be “completely different”

Reedus also described the final season as “completely different” from what’s come before, and Willy Wonka wasn’t the end of his movie references. “We’re all doing The Exorcist right now, all of our heads are spinning in a circle,” he said. “Yeah, we’re all Linda Blair right now. I mean, things go from a black and white western to a technicolor Willy Wonka film like that, and it’s crazy.”

Okay, we got zombies, The Exorcist, and Willy Wonka. I don’t know what that combination looks like but I’m here for it!

When last we saw Daryl and Maggie, they were stuck behind the walls of Alexandria after being attacked. They’re trying to keep things together in the aftermath of the Whisperer War, and with masked villains running around, it’s not going to be so easy.

“[Daryl is] protecting the kids a lot, to be honest, and…he’s protecting Maggie a lot,” Reedus explained. “Maggie’s going through a big thing at the beginning of this season, he kind of takes it upon himself to keep an eye on her and be part of that journey.”

That journey will likely involve coming to terms with her husband’s killer roaming around freely. Maggie did miss a whole chunk of character growth for Negan; all she really remembers about him is that he smashed her husband’s brains out, so I don’t blame her for the intense animosity.

Norman Reedus teases Daryl Dixon’s ourney on the final season of The Walking Dead

In any case, it’s going to be an interesting start to The Walking Dead’s final season, especially for Daryl, who will go on quite the journey himself. Daryl’s path “turns into a larger fight, which turns into something completely different”, according to Reedus. “But I think he’s taking care of people and he’s protecting people, but he’s also with everybody else kind of protecting [their home].”

It’s a lot to take on for one individual, but if anyone can do it, it’s Daryl Dixon. And that is precisely why I cannot wait for the spinoff series featuring Daryl and Melissa McBride’s Carol — it’s going to be epic.

The first batch of new episodes for The Walking Dead’s final season premiere on August 22 on AMC, or August 15 if you have AMC+.

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h/t Digital Spy