In the premiere screening of The Walking Dead’s highly anticipated season 10, a dangerous encounter with a fallen Russian satellite becomes an opportunity for an elusive peace. WARNING: Spoilers ahead!
On a good day, TV-show mania presents itself in beautifully zany ways. Cosplay is one of them. As you can imagine with a panel featuring the beloved ‘Walking Dead’ cast, people came dressed to the nines—or more accurately, dressed to the ones wearing gnarled t-shirts and faux-dirt makeup.
At the Paley Center for Media last week, fans attended interactive panel discussions and screenings at PaleyFest NY, a two-week celebration of the TV universe’s wildly popular and acclaimed shows. Of course, ‘The Walking Dead’ event packed the house full.
The discussion was simply awesome. Fans gushed and gawked; Humor abounded; And, without fail, so did the perpetual Daryl-Carol questions (or is it Carol-Daryl?). “I don’t know how to answer that. I can’t say anything more about Daryl and Carol. You’re going to make my boss mad at me,” a wiggling Norman Reedus, looking nervously at a laughing Angela Kang, season 10’s showrunner extraordinaire.
But let’s be honest; there are more pressing matters in The Walking Dead than love. With the first episode of season 10 having premiered on October 6th—go check that out, immediately!—the zombified universe is about the undergo a huge shift. The discovery of a plummeted USSR satellite has spurred brainiac Eugene into excitement for two things: a more connected post-apocalyptic world; a chance for redemption even.
“Thematically, we wanted to kind of talk about a war that felt like it had Cold War aspects and the Whisperers were always watching our people, and so a satellite felt like a good metaphor for that,” Kang said. “But we also just thought that was a fun, strange, and exciting way to start the season—and, you know, the satellite has other implications for the season going forward as well.”
Although the satellite has potential to save the world, the embittered battle between the Alexandrians and the Whisperers rages on. The questions are endless: Now that Negan is free, out of his cage, will he have a bigger role to play in the inevitable standoff? Michonne is—god, help us—leaving this season; what sort of ending has Angela Kang produced for her? And what about Carol—how will she internalize the death of her son?
Well, we might have an answer to the last one. At the end of episode one, we see a face-off between Alpha, leader of the Whisperers, and an enraged Carol. Revenge arc, here we come!