Scott Gimple On 'The Walking Dead' Season 8 Finale, Set Up For Season 9

The Walking Dead's Season Eight finale will finally conclude the All Out War story but also subtly set the stage for the narrative coming in Season Nine.

Showrunner Scott Gimple, who loses that title after Episode 8x16 in favor of a promotion to Chief Content Officer for all things Walking Dead, finally opened up about the last episode of the season while speaking to Entertainment Weekly. "It's very big," Gimple said. "Probably currently a little too big. It was pretty amazing the scope of some of the things that we got to do. And yet the emotional intensity was insane. And it very much sets up the start of the next story."

Naturally, fans of The Walking Dead comics will suspect a meeting with the Whisperers on the television set during the finale, but Gimple would not reveal how exactly the season's final moments segue toward the next. "There is some [set up]," Gimple said. "It certainly is not all setup. But the seeds to the next turn of the story are planted. And some of them are not. Some are subtly planted in as much that we know in many ways the next turn of the story."

As for the elements of The Walking Dead comics which many are hoping to see realized leading into the All Out War story's resolution, Gimple promises some but not all while the overarching story is kept in tact. "I think emotionally we're aspiring to evoke the same feeling that [creator Robert Kirkman] achieved in the book," Gimple goes on. "But from the butterfly effect and different characters around that weren't and vice versa, and even just the thrust of the story, how things play out are quite different in a lot of ways. There are some big changes that change the very outcome of certain aspects of the story — still trying to be true to the emotions of the story, but changing some big parts of it. It plays out very differently."

During an interview for ComicBook.com's After the Dead, executive producer Greg Nicotero confirmed he directs the Season Eight finale. ComicBook.com's After the Dead will be live to recap Chandler Riggs' final episode with executive producer Greg Nicotero and insight from Riggs himself at 10:22 pm ET on ComicBook NOW's Facebook page and ComicBook.com Orginals' YouTube channel.

The Walking Dead returns for the second half of its eighth season on February 25, 2018. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.