The Walking Dead boss explains why AMC announced spinoffs with spoilers

While The Walking Dead is currently airing its final eight episodes ever, the franchise is far from over. Next year, AMC will premiere three Walking Dead spinoff shows: a Daryl Dixon series, a Rick and Michonne show, and a Maggie and Negan show called Dead City. In doing this, they’ve spoiled the suspense for the ending of the main show, since we know all of these characters will survive.

The fan base has mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s great to see that the story will live on and that we’re getting even more time with fan-favorite characters. But for the final episodes, no character should be covered in plot armor. Nothing should be off the table.

Even Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan) has threw some shade at executives for their marketing strategy. “That’s not the way we should have gone about it,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

The Walking Dead showrunner says announcing spinoffs is not her call

Before we go moaning to the creatives behind the series, we first must understand that showrunner Angela Kang had no input with the announcements. The decisions were all made in-house by the studios. “It’s just important to bear in mind that studios and networks – they really determine the timing of announcements, “ Kang told Digital Spy. “That is just above the pay grades of those of us who are working on the creative.”

In fact, elements of the story had to be changed as a result of spinoff announcements. “What it affects for us in the story is… there are certain things in the story that are going to play differently, because now you know that they are off limits.”

Even though we may not see characters die, the stakes can still be high in the final episodes. We’ll feel the suspense in other ways: “I think that there’s always jeopardy for the characters,” Kang said. “No matter what, because even if you know that they aren’t going to die, there’s a lot that you still don’t know about how it’s going to play out. Like, what are going to be the emotional consequences for them, and what are going to be the consequences for people around them.”

"That’s the part that I would encourage people to lean into – if they’re a little surprised by that being spoiled for them."

This is, of course, unless the network announced spinoffs to lure fans into a false sense of security only to kill off characters in the finale. I don’t think this will happen; It would go down as the greatest juke in television history.

New episodes of The Walking Dead air Sundays on AMC. It’s long been debated how the show will wrap up. Now we’re merely weeks away from learning!

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