The Walking Dead’s final season drops on August 22 and it feels pretty surreal. It’s hard to believe that it’s the beginning of the end after many seasons, two spinoff series, countless character and zombie deaths, and years of survival. There are so many epic and memorable moments. Many fans may feel bittersweet about it but there’s a lot to look forward to this season. Specifically watching the Commonwealth arc play out and finding out who will survive to the end. Of course, we won’t know how it ends until it is over. The Walking Dead’s season 11 trailer does give us a tiny look into the infamous comic community. However, the real focus here is what it’s always been: walkers, human enemies, and survival of the fittest. And whoa is Alexandria looking very apocalyptic… even for the zombie apocalypse.
In the tradition of seasons past, the trailer dropped during the show’s SDCC panel with the cast and crew, including showrunner Angela Kang. In the clip, we see all of our old favorites (including Jerry!) as they fight to keep Alexandria from further falling apart. Areas of the walls are down, walkers are streaming in, and the community looks like pure hell. A new, rogue foe is literally coming for their necks. And, even though this group is bad news, they look like cosplay gold.
There are a few glimpses at our folks at the Commonwealth and they don’t seem to be having a great time either. Oh, and there is some interesting Maggie/Negan dialogue as they argue about their past choices for survival. And, for those of us who have been wanting to see Connie for a while, she’s still in the world with Virgil and also not living her best life. It appears they are being chased, perhaps by this new vagabond collective. It all adds up to a very emotional and frightening glimpse into where our group is right now.
The final season is bringing in a few new characters, including Mercer (Michael James Shaw) and Stephanie (Margo Bingham), whom we get a soft introduction to via Eugene last season. The SDCC panel also revealed that Laila Robins and Josh Hamilton will take on the roles of Commonwealth leader Pamela Milton and bookkeeper/intake guy Lance Hornsby, respectively. For those who are familiar with the comics, they certainly play a major role in this era.
We’ve known for a while that The Walking Dead’s final season will come in stages. But it wasn’t clear how they would break up a monster 24-episode season until now. Season 11 will air in three parts with eight episodes in each with 11A coming this fall. (AMC+ subscribers will get it a week early on August 15.)
Josh Stringer/AMC
Season 11B and 11C will come in 2022. It’s not clear when those exact dates will come but the flagship series normally airs in late winter and fall. So we can probably expect 11B to drop sometime around February/March 2022 and 11C in September/October.
It’s time to finish the saga strong and prepare ourselves to say farewell to (some) of these beloved characters.