Rick Grimes' Last Episode of The Walking Dead Inspired the Series Finale

"It feels like it's ending." So said Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) on his final episode of The Walking Dead, titled "What Comes After." What would come after is 57 episodes without Rick and the end of The Walking Dead, which will conclude with the November 20th series finale. As AMC looks to the future of the TWD Universe — three new Walking Dead spinoff shows starring Rick, Michonne (Danai Gurira), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and Daryl (Norman Reedus) are slated to premiere next year — creatives looked back at Rick's sendoff to once again answer the question: What comes after?

"It all comes together. It means that we see where each [of these characters], all these characters come to their conclusions, their final forms," Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer of the Walking Dead Universe, said during New York Comic Con. "We do tell the end of the story of The Walking Dead. Yes, there are these other shows, but this is how everything does come together into what it all meant."

So what does that mean? 

"When we did [Season 9 Episode 5], which was the last Rick episode, when we started that — [co-writer] Matt Negrete and [showrunner] Angela Kang and myself — when we were working on that episode, when we were looking at Rick, we were like: 'What did it all mean? What did all of this mean, from waking up in the hospital to now, [in] 905?'"

As explained by Gimple, looking back to the very beginning of The Walking Dead to tell its ending is "how we approached these last eight episodes. What did it all mean? How does it all come together? Who do these people become?"

Even with spinoffs set to continue the stories of some of the show's longest-surviving characters, Gimple has said the Walking Dead series finale, titled "Rest in Peace," is "about completing the Walking Dead story, not setting up spinoffs." 

"There's room for those spinoffs, but full-on, The Walking Dead finale concludes the story of this 11 [seasons]," he said during the show's final San Diego Comic-Con appearance. "We didn't want the spinoffs to get in the way of that satisfaction. They live together, I think, very nicely."

Added Kang, who wrote the Greg Nicotero-directed finale, "I think that's right. I think the goal is that, even if there were no spinoffs, it would feel like there is a closure to the show itself. The show itself needs its own ending. But doors are left open, as they so often are in life, and as they were even in the ending of the comic. There's always a story that's continuing once the story that you tell on screen has ended, so that's the spirit."

When is The Walking Dead Series Finale Date and Time?

The Walking Dead series finale, "Rest in Peace," will air on the same date and time at 9/8c on Sunday, November 20th, on AMC and AMC+.

When Does Rick Grimes Return to The Walking Dead?

Andrew Lincoln reprises his role as Rick Grimes and reunites with Danai Gurira as Michonne in the Rick & Michonne series announced at San Diego Comic-Con. Originally planned as a theatrical movie trilogy, Rick's return was redeveloped into the series set to air on AMC and AMC+. The six-episode first season is slated to premiere in 2023.

Follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for TWD Universe coverage all season long. New episodes of The Walking Dead's final season premiere Sundays on AMC and AMC+.