‘The Walking Dead’ Cast Talks Series Finale, Memories & Spinoffs at NYCC 2022 Panel

After eleven seasons and more than a decade on air, AMC‘s The Walking Dead is finally coming to a close. As such, the panel at New York Comic-Con 2022, moderated by longtime series host Chris Hardwick, was also the last for the series. Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Ridloff, Eleanor Matsuura, Michael James Shaw, and Paola Lazaro took to the stage this year alongside Hardwick and TWD‘s former writer/showrunner Scott Gimple.

Besides talking about the final episodes, which began airing October 2, 2022, the cast shared their most fond memory of being part of The Walking Dead family, its impact, as well as upcoming spinoffs coming from the franchise, including Dead City and the standalone Daryl series.

Thank you #TWDFamily for making #TheWalkingDead what it is! #NYCC2022 pic.twitter.com/RuctGGZ70c

— The Walking Dead on AMC (@WalkingDead_AMC) October 8, 2022

Is there anything you could tease about these last seven episodes that are coming up?

Gimple said, “It all comes together…it means that all these characters come to their conclusions, their final forms, you know, they move to their final Pokemon, as it were…we do tell the end of the story of The Walking Dead. Yes, there are these other shows, but this is how everything does come together into what it all meant. When we did 905, which was the last Rick episode when we started that we thought, “What did it all mean?” What did all of this mean from waking up in the hospital to 905, that’s how we approached these last 8 episodes. What did it all mean? How does it all come together? Who do they become?”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, did you ever think Negan’s journey would go this far?

“No. [laughs] No, I think originally, it was gonna be three years. Yeah, I had a conversation with Scott, and he was like, “You gotta be down for at least three years if you want to be part of this show.” And I was like, “That seems like a long time.” But little did I know 8 years later, I’d be here. I can’t believe that we’re here celebrating the end of the show as we know it. It’s unbelievable. And there’s been so many kinds of iterations of this show. Through the years of losing people and having people come back, it’s been one hell of a f—cking ride.”

Related

Why 'The Walking Dead' Star Norman Reedus Is Now a 'Stay-at-Home Guy'

Norman, what can you tell us about the Daryl spinoff?

“It’s in France. It’s epic in scale. I mean, it’s f—ing me epic. I’ve been on location over there for a bit. I’ve been talking to sound people, photography people, it’s crazy what we’re going to do, I think France is gonna have a heart attack. Which is good, it’s what I want. It has a different look, it has a different feel, has a different sound to it. It has all the things that you like about the show, but [with] new people experiencing them in a different kind of way. It’s something I think we’re all going to love and something that I’m going to be proud of.”

Is there anything that you can tease about Walker variants in Europe?

Gimple said, stuff has gone in France? And it’s weird, and we saw some of it in Walking Dead: World Beyond. So Daryl in is experiencing things that he hasn’t experienced before in life and with Walkers.

Related

First Look at Lauren Cohan & Jeffrey Dean Morgan in 'The Walking Dead: Dead City'

Jeffrey and Lauren, what can you tell us about Dead City, currently shooting over in New Jersey?

Morgan said, “There’s us, there’s ziplines, there’s New York, there’s New Jersey… there’s some horrible people along the way. There’s also some great people along the way.”

Cohen said, “Mostly what it is, is the most unlikely to people that you would want to see together. And it makes it very good to see us together because it is the hardest situation and we both have to be in, and the need is bigger than the fear.”