The Fate Of ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 11 Is Uncertain At The Moment

Another Sunday is here and the Walking Dead season finale is still not airing, as lockdowns remain in place due to the pandemic, and post-production work cannot be finished on the last episode of season 10 until that’s over.

But while we will probably see the season 10 finale within a week or two of AMC production going back to work, the fate of season 11 is less certain.

Normally, the show would be filming by now ahead of a release this October like we see pretty much every year. But the current situation may delay it, as AMC also has to contend with delays of the launch of The Walking Dead: World Beyond and Fear the Walking Dead which are/will be pushed back too.

The actors have no idea what’s going on with season 11 right now. Here’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan on Live with Kelly and Ryan:

“As far as The Walking Dead and the next season, I don’t know. No one knows when and where and how and if, y’know? It’s a big waiting game to see what’s going to happen.”

Greg Nicotero is a little more optimistic, and explains what’s going on with the current state of the season. In short, they can start writing as much as they can now remotely so production can immediately start once the lockdowns are lifted. Here’s him talking to Den of Geek:

“The good news is the writers are cranking away. So fingers crossed that we’ll have all of our scripts or a lot of the scripts ready to go by the time we start production. Television’s tricky because you got to give the writers’ room time to break the story. Once you get into production and that boat leaves the dock, then you’re sort of holding on for dear life.”

One potential problem I can foresee is while post-production work may be able to return to normal, actual filming may be a different story. We are likely to see some measure put in place like mandatory masks, which might work in a production studio, but can’t exactly work when you’re filming with actors who have to film fight or dialogue scenes or suit up to make massive zombie hordes with no regard for social distancing. So that could prove tricky.

An additional factor that could accelerate this is that The Walking Dead films in Georgia, which is a state with a Republican governor who is starting to lift restrictions more quickly than other places (so quickly even President Trump told him to slow down), but that doesn’t mean the cast and crew will automatically deem it safe to return to filming, necessarily.

My guess is that we will probably see The Walking Dead season 11 delayed a month or two, maybe in 2021, depending on how long lockdowns continue. I think AMC still wants to air World Beyond and Fear before it, so all we might get in the near-term is the season 10 finale once that’s completed.

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