The Walking Dead’s Final Season Feels Like the First Season but “Much Bigger”

It's the beginning of the end for The Walking Dead, but the ending goes back to the beginning: executive producer Denise Huth reveals the final season feels like the first season but "much bigger." Huth's involvement with the zombie drama dates back to 2005, a time when most networks were too afraid to turn Robert Kirkman's gory comic book into the television series that would come to life at AMC Networks. Ahead of the eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead, premiering August 22 on AMC, Huth says Season 11 recalls the feel and tone established by series developer and original showrunner Frank Darabont in Season 1:

"The thing I've noticed the most this year is actually just some of the shots, the way the directors are choosing to film things feels very Season 1 to me," Huth said during a live stream with TWDUniverse on Twitch. "There's a few moments where I'm just like, 'Oh!' It takes my breath away, it takes me right back to the pilot. There are subtle moments that are in there and some that are a little more obvious, but we always remember where we came from."

In the first season, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) emerges from a coma and searches for his family before learning to survive in a world gone "bye." In the final season of The Walking Dead, the group discovers a new civilization thriving more than a decade into the zombie apocalypse.

"They're still in the woods a lot, they're still fighting walkers a lot. There's still these character developments going on amongst themselves and these new people and how they all interact, all the elements of the story from the very beginning — from the pilot — are there. It's just the world has gotten so much bigger," Huth said of the Commonwealth, the endgame for the Walking Dead comic books. "I look back on the pilot, and it was mostly just Rick, and now we have something like 22 series regulars (laughs). So it's just the show has gotten so, so giant, and the more people you introduce to a story, the more complicated it gets."

The Walking Dead returns August 22 with "Acheron: Part I," the first of the final 24 episodes airing through 2022.

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Final Season of The Walking Dead premieres August 22 on AMC and is streaming early August 15 on AMC+.