The finale of The Walking Dead may have been some time ago, but the end of the series universe is far from being in sight. The zombie franchise owes a large part of its success to Robert Kirkman’s comic book, which was adapted more and less specifically over 11 seasons.
The zombie franchise could have almost ended many years earlier. As part of the re-release of the comic series, Kirkman revealed his original idea for the ending of The Walking Dead, as Screen Rant reports. It wasn’t a happy ending.
The Walking Dead was supposed to end with the downfall of humanity
The Walking Dead comic ended after a total of 193 issues. Kirkman had a concrete idea for it quite early on a “dark, sad…possibly terrible” Endwhich he almost did around issue 84.
AMC
Season 6 could have been The Walking Dead finale
The original plan was that Rick Grimes’ story could have ended after a zombie horde attacked Alexandria. After the safe zone is saved by joining forces, Rick would have given an inspiring speech, followed by a surprising time jump into the future.
Kirkman says:
The idea was that Alexandria was so successful that Rick was able to spend his life there and a statue was erected in his honor, but Ultimately… the city fell and the plague of the zombie apocalypse just… continued. So we would leave readers with the thought that the zombies win no matter what the humans do… I know, right?
A victory by Rick Grimes would have been followed by the ultimate punch in the stomach. Finally, The Walking Dead ended with a huge jump in time, but on a much more hopeful note. Fortunately, over time, Kirkman has moved away from not only the idea of a nihilistic finale, but also the timing of the conclusion.
If The Walking Dead had already ended with issue number 84, this would have been the case massive impact on the series adaptation had. The zombie attack on Alexandria in question took place in season 6: in THE episode in which Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) loses an eye.
So the story of Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Co. could have ended over eight years earlier. However, we would then never have seen iconic villains like Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) or the Whisperers.
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