The Walking Dead: Read The Letter Sent To Cast And Crew About Show Ending

The Walking Dead is ending after its Season 11. The news broke on Wednesday morning, informing fans of the long-running zombie series that after a 24-episode final season, the story will continue with spinoffs but the show which they have come to know for years will be wrapped up. Throughout the week and in the time leading up to the news being made public, the team in charge of The Walking Dead was tasked with informing the cast and crew that the series would be ending. Some members of the production learned the news weeks ago as new deals for spinoffs were being put into place, some learned of the news as late as Tuesday afternoon.

To inform the cast and crew of the show’s end, showrunner Angela Kang and The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple penned a letter to convey their gratitude and excitement as the saga enters its final chapter. The letter came with the news of Daryl and Carol’s spinoff show and the additional Tales of the Walking Dead anthology series which will be launching in the years coming up.

ComicBook.com has obtained a copy of Kang and Gimple’s letter to more than 300 members of the cast and crew. See it for yourself, as you also prepare to bid farewell to The Walking Dead, below.

TWD Family,

As you may have seen in the press, we’ve come to a very big moment.

After our next, supersized season that will span a couple years, The Walking Dead will be coming to an end.

For all of us — especially those who have been a part of this show for the better part of a decade — this is a seismic announcement. Just to break it down:

• Season 11 will be the final, extended season of The Walking Dead, running 24 episodes, probably shooting until early 2022. (We say “probably,” being optimistic but recognizing current production-pandemic uncertainties that affect the schedule.)
• A Carol & Daryl spinoff has been greenlit by AMC for 2023.
• Tales of The Walking Dead, an anthology series, is in development, as well as other possible TWD series/expressions.

We can’t believe the end is upon us, however far away it is. This crew, this cast, these writer/producers and producers are the show. You are this show’s immediate future of 30 astounding episodes to fulfill our epic story and you will be among those who seal its legacy in entertainment history.

We have reached millions around the world, and we will continue to reach millions more. There’s a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of opportunities to be there for each other, to bring out each other’s best, to bring our show to new heights of excellence.

We’re lucky to have an audience that has stuck by us over ten years of massive change in the world. We hope to have been a point of stability in people’s lives — something they could count on every week (or as part of a late summer binge) to make them feel — happy, heartbroken, intrigued, scared, excited, inspired. Maybe a little grossed out. Maybe considering things about their own life. Maybe considering who they are. People will need those feelings again. And that stability again. And we can give that to them with this epic final season, the last chapter of a multi-year saga of people figuring out how to live in a broken world.

There is hard work, good times, and amazing moments ahead. The only way we can climb this mountain of episodes is how we’ve always done it: together. Let’s begin the long road to the end, standing side by side, in solidarity to do some awesome stuff with all the people who got us here, for all the people who got us here.

As ever, we are The Walking Dead.

– Scott M. Gimple & Angela Kang

While the news of The Walking Dead closing its curtains for the last time is not tremendously surprising this deep into its run, it does come with a bit of a feeling of still being unexpected. The series looked as though it would quite literally go on forever. While the franchise as a whole might, the main series will not and now is the smartest time for AMC to call it.

The Walking Dead has its original Season 10 finale set to air on October 4. Six more episodes of Season 10 will be produced beginning in October to air in early 2021. Season 11 will go into production in early 2021. Fear the Walking Dead will begin airing its sixth season on October 11. The Walking Dead: World Beyond will follow The Walking Dead Season 10 finale on October and new episodes of Fear the Walking Dead with its first season. A TWD movie starring Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes is still in development at Universal and Skybound.

Are you ready for The Walking Dead to have run its course after watching 31 more episodes? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram.