The road for The Walking Dead has been a long and gore-filled one for the protagonists thus far, but according to a new Entertainment Weekly interview with showrunner Scott M. Gimple, their difficult journey might finally be coming to a close. This Sunday’s Walking Dead Season 8 finale will wrap up the grueling trip from the past eight seasons and lead to a new phase going into Season 9.
RELATED: The Walking Dead Season 8 Finale Previews
“I was there, and it was an intense vibe. It was a very hard season. And kind of everybody is in this episode. It was just intense,” said Gimple, who will be leaving day-to-day operations on the series to Angela Kang and will only maintain a franchise oversight role. “People were pretty to the limit this year emotionally. Also, this episode isn’t just like these 15 episodes coming to a conclusion, but Angela and myself and the writers had always talked about this in many ways being sort of the conclusion of the first eight seasons. This show will be very much a new show next year and with a bigger, new narrative.”
This season has adapted the “All Out War” story arc from the comics, highlighting the fight between Rick, the Alexandrians, the Hilltop, the Kingdom and the Scavengers and Negan and his saviors. The fighting has been brutal and traumatizing for those on both sides of the field, ramping up to a bombastic finale this upcoming Sunday. Gimple describes the finale as being massive in scope and that there will be a fight, but it won’t be quite the large-scale battle the fans are preparing for, with more focus being paid to what’s happening with the characters around the battle.
“I guess with so many people, so many characters reaching the conclusion of the story that we’ve been laying out for them over the past few years in some regards, there’s just a lot going on, and a lot of perspectives that we’re shifting between and some very, very big emotional and philosophical movement between just some unbelievably insane things happening,” Gimple added.
The season finale, entitled “Wrath,” will air on AMC on April 15 at 9/8c.
Based on the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics, The Walking Dead is executive produced by showrunner Scott M. Gimple, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero and Tom Luse. The Walking Dead tells the story of the months and years that follow after a zombie apocalypse, and follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who travel in search of a safe and secure home.
The series stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Alanna Masterson, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Austin Amelio, Tom Payne, Xander Berkeley, Khary Payton, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
