The Walking Dead in the Last Stretch of Filming Final Season

The Walking Dead‘s director of photography confirms the Final Season is in the “last stretch” of filming, with just three episodes still to shoot until wrapping on the AMC zombie drama. After the COVID-19 pandemic caused an extended shutdown of the Georgia-shot The Walking Dead in 2020, postponing the production of Season 11 until 2021, cameras finally began rolling on the three-part expanded season last February. As AMC Networks readies the return of the flagship series with Part 2 of the Final Season on February 20, filming restarted this week on a homestretch that includes episodes 22, 23, and 24 — the series finale of The Walking Dead.

“We started filming this week. On the last stretch,” Duane Manwiller, a cinematographer on The Walking Dead since Season 8 in 2017, wrote in a behind-the-scenes photo posted to Instagram. In another photo from the making of the Final Season, Manwiller confirmed there are “only three [episodes] left to film.” 

In September 2020, AMC announced Season 11 of The Walking Dead would be its last with an expanded two-year Final Season spanning 24 episodes. After this next batch of eight episodes premiering Feb. 20, The Walking Dead will conclude with an eight-episode Part 3 of The Final Season Trilogy to air later this year on AMC. 

“It’s been ten years ‘gone bye;’ what lies ahead are two more to come and stories and stories to tell beyond that,” Scott Gimple, chief content officer of TWD Universe and former Walking Dead showrunner, said when announcing the Final Season in 2020. “What’s clear is that this show has been about the living, made by a passionate cast, team of writer/producers, producers, and crew, bringing to life the vision put forth by Robert Kirkman in his brilliant comic — and supported by the best fans in the world.”

“We have a lot of thrilling story left to tell on TWD, and then, this end will be a beginning of more Walking Dead — brand new stories and characters, familiar faces and places, new voices, and new mythologies,” said Gimple. “This will be a grand finale that will lead to new premieres. Evolution is upon us. The Walking Dead lives.”

Longtime Walking Dead series writer-producer Angela Kang, showrunner since Season 9, is developing with Gimple a spinoff sequel series focused on Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride). The untitled spinoff is planned for a 2023 release on AMC. 

The Walking Dead: The Final Season Part 2 premieres February 20 on AMC. The final eight episodes of The Walking Dead air later in 2022. 

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