The Walking Dead: Season 11 Revealed the Alternative Ending of The Last Episode

The Walking Dead closed its doors a few days ago, with a series finale that is both a celebration of more than ten years of the life of the series and the prelude to the various spin-offs to come. But an alternative ending to the one that aired was written, which was then shelved. Warning, spoilers follow!

The Walking Dead Season 11 Alternative Ending

In the official series finale, which aired on AMC in the US and is available on Disney+ internationally, the story closes a year after the Commonwealth’s defeat: Daryl sets off in search of Rick, whose two sons admire the view now (relatively) devoid of zombies, while the closing scenes show Michonne against a horde of the undead, and Rick being chased by the new villains of the moment. But this was not the initial plan: without revealing the exact content, the showrunner Angela Kang, interviewed by Decider, confirmed that she had written a different ending that was liked at the time of the proposal, but then in post-production, it clashed with the rest of the episode.

Another person involved in the making of the show has instead commented in detail on the situation, according to Insider: the first version of the ending returned to the famous street of the Freedom Parkway, where Rick Grimes rode by in the first episode. Only this time, instead of the ex-sheriff there were adult versions of his children, Judith and Rick Jr., and the latter repeated one of the famous lines of the parent. According to Insider’s sources, the scene was cut for two reasons: it wasn’t compatible with AMC’s planned expansion of the franchise, and emotionally it didn’t make sense to close with future versions of characters that audiences know little about. But given that the network has no intention of definitively saying goodbye to the universe created by Robert Kirkman, it cannot be excluded that this idea will reappear in a few years.

As we have already said, the universe of The Walking Dead will return to our screens in 2023 with new spinoffs: one about Daryl Dixon, one about Maggie and Negan, and one about Rick and Michonne, which was originally supposed to be a film trilogy and is later became a cathode miniseries)