The Walking Dead Does Something It’s Never Done Before in Big Season 11 Premiere

The Walking Dead returns with a super-sized season premiere that does something "we have never seen" on the show before, reveals executive producer and TWD Universe chief content officer Scott Gimple. The two-part premiere scripted by showrunner Angela Kang kicks off a 24-episode final season — the zombie drama's biggest-ever — that promises to be brutal and extra dark for the group of survivors now living in one community. After the six pared-down bonus episodes of the extended Season 10, the first to go into production during the pandemic, producers say The Walking Dead is back to its expected scope and scale when new episodes begin on August 22.

"The first episode is crazy. I cannot wait for people to see it," Gimple teased during an appearance on TWDUniverse on Twitch. "It's big. It's very, very big. I don't want to say too much, but it's stuff we have never seen on the show. When Angela, the writer, started talking about it, I immediately got excited."

"It's something we have not yet seen on the show. After the amount of episodes we've done" — 153 episodes so far — "that's a pretty cool thing," the former Walking Dead showrunner said.

Season 11 sees the survivors in a state of repair after silencing the Whisperers and ending their war with Alpha (Samantha Morton) and Beta (Ryan Hurst). Their old friend, Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan), returned home to Virginia after years away on the road, but must now live behind the same walls as Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) — her husband's killer.

As Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) move forward in an Alexandria at risk of collapse, our heroes will soon find their world getting bigger once again when the expedition led by Eugene (Josh McDermitt) leads to the Commonwealth: a post-apocalypse civilization unlike any ever encountered on The Walking Dead.

The Final Season is expected to air in three eight-episode blocks, concluding with its series finale sometime in 2022. Gimple previously revealed this final chapter begins with "eight action-packed episodes that will feature the massive scope and scale fans have come to expect from TWD Universe."

"Coming off of the six additional episodes for Season 10, which focused on smaller, character-driven stories, we're excited to kick off Season 11 bigger than ever," said Kang when announcing the August 22 season premiere. "The stakes will be high — we'll see more zombies, tons of action, intriguing new stories, never-before-seen locations and our groups together in one community for the first time, trying to rebuild what the Whisperers took from them."

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Final Season of The Walking Dead premieres Sunday, August 22, on AMC.