After recent episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 returned to the city, more episodes of the zombie drama will take place in urban environments in Season 11. According to showrunner Angela Kang, the new season is imbued with western and thriller elements with a basis in the Commonwealth story that put less focus on rural, walker-filled woods in the final stretch of creator Robert Kirkman’s comic book. In the second half of Season 10, Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Hilltop co-leaders Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) and King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) travel into a mostly-abandoned city while en route to Charleston, West Virginia, where they’ve set a rendezvous with Stephanie (Margot Bingham), the ambassador for a new community.
Asked by Deadline if this mission bringing the group into the city signifies more urban environments next season, Kang said, “We’ll continue to look at different aspects of this world, but yeah, I’d say that. What we’re working on in Season 11, there will be some more urban feel and some different kinds of feels that we’ve been concentrating on. So, it’ll be a mix.”
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In the comic book, the travelling group of survivors meet Juanita Sanchez, the self-titled “Princess of Pittsburgh,” in Pennsylvania before being taken to the Ohio-based Commonwealth. Kang previously confirmed with ComicBook.com the city where Eugene’s group encounters Princess (Paola Lazaro) in the show was not Pittsburgh as the group are due to meet Stephanie at the southern rail yards in Charleston, West Virginia.
“No, it’s not supposed to be Pittsburgh. We took a different path,” Kang said. “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 [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.”
Gimple, who is penning the Walking Dead feature film with Kirkman, likely made the request to avoid collision with the story planned for the missing Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).
A teaser for the film hinted Rick was shuttled to Philadelphia when he disappeared from Virginia after being rescued by Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh), formerly Jadis of the Scavengers, aboard a helicopter belonging to the Civic Republic Military. More about this organization will come into focus in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, which introduces survivors from the Nebraska-based Campus Colony.
The Walking Dead next airs “A Certain Doom” as a special episode later this year. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.
