The Walking Dead Makes Major Change For Rick Grimes Movies

The Walking Dead introduced a new character in Episode 10×14 as Eugene’s small group made a journey to Charleston, West Virginia to meet a mysterious friend from his radio. The new character, portrayed by Paola Lazaro and more thoroughly explored in the Season 10 finale on Sunday night, is well known by fans of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comics. Real name Juanita Sanchez, the extravagant and friendly new characters goes by Princess. Both of those names of true to the comics. However, in introducing Princess to the TV series, showrunner Angela Kang admits there was one thing which had to be changed as a means to preserve some space for upcoming stories in the Dead universe.

In the comics, Princess is found in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. If one were to charter a route from Alexandria, Virginia to Charleston, West Virginia, it would come as no surprise that going by way of Pittsburgh would add unnecessary hours by car — let alone the horses Eugene’s group are using to travel. On the show, the characters are not in Pittsburgh, despite the digitally created skyline somewhat resembling the Pennsylvania city.

“No, it’s not supposed to be Pittsburgh. We took a different path,” Kang explained. “The comic book destinations, we were mapping and we’re like, ‘Pittsburgh does feel a little out of the way.’ And also, there was a request from [The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple] from the universe side to sort of avoid that area, and so we are on a different path.”

What Kang is referencing is most likely the areas which will be explored by The Walking Dead: World Beyond and the highly anticipated Rick Grimes movies. The only details for the Rick Grimes movies which have been teased so far indicate that Rick’s exit from The Walking Dead in the beginning of Season 9 brought him to Philadelphia. Pittsburgh is only a 305 mile drive from Philadelphia, so as the universe continues to expand in the northeastern portion of the United States, The Walking Dead may have to steer clear of the area as a means to avoid restricting the story in the upcoming canon stories which will be told there.

This might also indicate that the Commonwealth community might not be in Ohio but rather in a state west of Virginia.

Still, Kang is excited for the introduction of Lazaro’s Princess, a character who ultimately comes along during the journey to the largest community ever introduced in the source material. “Obviously for comic book fans, here’s this character that came in, she’s sort of wild and unlike anybody our people have met, so that made it really fun to imagine bringing her into the show,” Kang said. “And I think, for us, the thing that we were really dealing with was, here’s this character that we love and think is really fun; how do we make sure that when she comes in, she feels like she’s properly been in the apocalypse? What’s her state of mind? How does she look? Even in talking with Kirkman, he’s like, ‘With the purple hair, just make sure it looks like it’s apocalypse purple.’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, of course.’”

For more from ComicBook.com’s interview with The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang, head over to ComicBook.com/TheWalkingDead following Sunday night’s Season 10 finale. Have you enjoyed the show’s tenth season? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter!