The Walking Dead Final Season Could Air in Three Parts

The Walking Dead may split its eleventh season into three eight-episode parts when it returns with its 24-episode final season in late 2021, according to TWD chief content officer and executive producer Scott Gimple. While seasons are typically 16 episodes long and air in two parts, each with eight episodes divided by a months-long mid-season hiatus, the epic and expanded Final Season of The Walking Dead will possibly break down into a season 11A, 11B, and 11C. These three parts would come after AMC extends the tenth season with a six-episode 10C, the block of all-new bonus episodes that begin airing February 28 on AMC.

"I'm pretty, fairly sure it's an 'A,' 'B,' and 'C.' I'm not 100% sure," the former Walking Dead showrunner told Insider. "So I think, even if I were to give you an answer on that now, it very well could change."

Gimple added, "I will say that eight-episode blocks are kind of our sweet spot. I think it's a good bet, but I don't want to totally embarrass myself when a different decision is made."

In September, AMC Networks announced The Walking Dead would end after 177 episodes spanning 11 seasons and 12 years. Including the six episodes airing in early 2021, just 30 new episodes are left to air before the series finale.

Despite the looming end of the mothership show, the Walking Dead Universe remains very much alive with two spinoffs — Fear the Walking Dead and two-season limited event series The Walking Dead: World Beyond — with two more shows on the way. Along with the episodic anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead, Gimple co-created the untitled Daryl/Carol spinoff centered on Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride's characters.

"We have the Carol/Daryl show, which in some ways is the centerpiece of what's moving forward," Gimple told ComicBook.com about the franchise's future. "Tales on the other hand is completely different. There isn't even a regular cast to that show. I think there's gonna be a mix of old favorites in various ways, whether they be specials, whether they be mini-series, whether they be on Tales, and then things like Carol and Daryl, and rolled out in a way that we're not over-saturating people with it, but letting people have a steady flow of The Walking Dead in their lives. That's our goal."

He added, "We want that to be both very different and then some of those familiar faces. There's reinvention of the existing. And then there's the new stuff."

The Walking Dead returns with new episodes on February 28, 2021, on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.