Norman Reedus Previews “Very Different” ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 Finale

The Walking Dead Season Nine finale will be unlike any episode before it, in that one particular aspect will offer up something brand new to the AMC zombie series. The post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead is finally going to venture into a snow-covered world. Winter has finally come for The Walking Dead and Daryl Dixon actor Norman Reedus is quite exicied for the upcoming hour.

“I will say visually the last episode is nothing like you’ve ever seen on The Walking Dead before,” Reedus told EW. “It’s completely different. It was so fun to shoot. It’s a different look, 1000%, in the end. It’s a huge, visually explosive episode that’s going to be visually stunning.”

The episode is certainly visually explosive, however it puts actual explosions in the back seat. Following the shocking reveal in Episode 9×15, featuring a line-up of dead characters at the hands of Whisperer leader Alpha, the Season Nine finale will follow the heroes in the aftermath. In the time which has passed, the survivors won’t be battling the Whisperers. Instead, they will be battling the storm and banding together to survive it.

In other words: The Walking Dead Season Nine finale is all about the characters.

“There are some personalities at the very end that get wrapped up in a certain way, like you think a person’s far to the left and they end up far to the right,” Reedus said. “We ended on a way that’s kind of The Great Escape. It’s not a wrap-it-all-up-in-a-bow episode. It’s definitely a moving forward sort of vibe. It’s just huge.”

It’s a stark contrast to previous season finales for The Walking Dead. Over the show’s history, most of the action and shocking moments is reserved for the book-ending episodes. It could be new showrunner Angela Kang who has headed up such a change for the show.

“I love the risks that she’s taken,” Reedus said of Kang. “I love what Angela’s doing to the show. She’s very punk rock, Angela Kang. She jumps in. There’s a confidence with our crew and with our cast and with our storytelling that we’ve earned over the years. If you’re going to take risks, now’s the time to take them, and they’re all paying off After nine years, you have to reinvent yourself a little bit. I just want to make the show that we want to make, and it feels like that’s what we’re doing. You can feel it in the crew. You can feel it in the cast. You can feel it in the scripts. It’s the show that we want to make.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes on Facebook.com/ComicBookNOW.