After 12 years, 11 seasons, and 177 episodes, The Walking Dead will end with a series finale directed by series veteran Greg Nicotero. Since 2010, Nicotero has served as special FX make-up designer, zombie extra, executive producer, and director for the AMC series, implementing techniques dating back to his time as an assistant for make-up master Tom Savini on George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead. On November 20th, AMC’s flagship zombie drama (returning October 2nd) will air the last of its final eight episodes — the last-ever episode of The Walking Dead.
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“I asked to direct the finale, but I believe that [showrunner] Angela [Kang] and Scott [M. Gimple, executive producer] already had every intention of having me do it, for a lot of reasons,” Nicotero told Empire Magazine. “I felt the weight of pressure on me, and I’m proud of what we did. Is it zombie-heavy or zombie-light? Well, even if the script had said ‘two or three zombies’, I’d need more like 200 or 300.”
After directing nearly 40 episodes of The Walking Dead, Nicotero is confident the series finale is “a pretty amazing episode.”
“I put my heart and soul into it. It was rough,” he said. “I said to Norman [Reedus] one day, ‘Man, if I can make it through this, I can do anything. I can direct a Star Wars movie, I can direct anything that lands in front of me.’ I’m proud of it.”
Filming on The Walking Dead‘s final episode wrapped in March in Georgia, ending a 12-month shoot — and a 12-year run.
“On the last day of [filming] The Walking Dead, I shot a little video of me and Norman on set,” Nicotero recalled. “We talked about 12 years together, all the stuff that we had done. Like when the scripts would come out and Andy [Lincoln] and Norman would come over to my house and we would read them together. We’d been in the trenches together for over a decade.”
After revealing the show’s final San Diego Comic-Con trailer in July, Nicotero noted series creators “definitely felt like we had an obligation to make sure this landed.”
“Everybody on set, the cast and crew, were saying we can’t screw this up because all eyes generally end up on the last episode,” Nicotero said at Comic-Con. “You talk about Seinfeld, M*A*S*H, all these great shows we love, and most of the time the historical relevance of the show is judged on the last episode. So we really struggled, agonized, and buckled down to make sure it serves the fans of the show.”
The Walking Dead: The Last Episodes begin Sunday, October 2nd on AMC and AMC+. The series finale airs on November 20th.
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