Back at Wonder Con, Fear The Walking Dead premiered its trailer of the final season at the show. The cast and showrunners also shared details on what to expect with the story along with a sneak peak of the first episode.
There is no doubt that I could not comprehend the mess of Fear The Walking Dead’s seventh season that amounted to nothing. The payoff to that supposed “war” between Strand and Alicia gave us one of the worst episodes in the series last year and I’ve had it up to here with its awful storytelling.
Tribeca Film Festival announced their lineup for the select television shows that will premiere at the event. One of them is the long awaited The Walking Dead: Dead City.
On Saturday, AMC’s The Walking Dead: Dead City and Fear The Walking Dead took the stage at Wonder Con in Anaheim, CA.
In recent years, there has been several attempts to adapt video game franchises into television series. Some were ranged to above average to just bad. HBO’s The Last of Us is on the road to break that curse and set the standard of how video games are rightfully adapted on television.
On November 20th, AMC’s The Walking Dead concluded its final season as the last episode aired.
The episode titled “Rest in Peace” premiered on both AMC Network and AMC+ at the same time so everyone can enjoy it at the same time. That is not the only thing that the brand did. On the same day, the finale event took place.
The finale event started with a red carpet event as the cast from the main show arrived. Of the cast, I caught up with Norman Reedus, Christian Serratos, Seth Gilliam, Cailey, Fleming, Cassady McClincy, Michael James Shaw, Paola Lazaro, Josh Hamilton, Nadine Marissa, Josh McDermitt, Khary Payton, and more to talk about the final episode. The cast also shared their favorite memories while being on The Walking Dead and their thoughts about the franchise in general.
That did not end there as fans got to see the final episode at The Orpheon Theater in Los Angeles and a live edition of Talking Dead. There were also statues, fan artwork from a contest, and key memorabilia that was on display all thorough the theater. AMC went out of their way to bring The Walking Dead family together for one final time at this event before the spinoffs premieres next year.
At a different location, I attended the after party which was not for the public. It was a great time with the most food I’ve seen at a private party in a long time. There was also a pool that was shaped like a casket, which was fitting for The Walking Dead.
Overall, this was a great experience. The Walking Dead fans left home happy!
The final episode of The Walking Dead showcased emotion, action, and suspense with a satisfying conclusion that wrapped up a number of characters stories.
Rosita’s death was something I did not see coming. I thought that her scenes with Eugene and everyone that said goodbye to her was beautifully acted as it really brought out the sadness in me. The character will be missed and Coco will have to grow up without her birth mom.
Pamela being arrested for her crimes during the last few episodes was expected. I really love the standoff between her, Mercer’s commonwealth army, and Daryl including when Daryl mouthed the “we are NOT The Walking Dead” line as the context here suited better than the line from the source material.
I will say that it was cool to see those variant walkers being a threat to everyone. I just wish that we got this much earlier. I also love the callbacks to when Shane made sure that Rick Grimes was safe in the hospital as Daryl did the same for Judith Grimes. I do question where she got that strength from to close the doors from those walkers while she had a gunshot wound though!
The final scene between Daryl and Carol is the best scene the two characters had. It is a shame that we will not see Carol in Daryl’s spinoff since this scene really felt like that is where it was heading. Also, Maggie and Negan’s conversation was sad. Sure, Negan finally apologized to her. But I am glad that Maggie did not forgive him. Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have a great chemistry when the two actors are on screen together!
There are a few nitpicks that I have to point out. First, Rosita got bit and 24 hours later, she is at dinner with the rest of the family as she did not appear to look or act sick at all. We saw this with every character that got bit that looked sick minutes to hours later. How could this oversight happen? Second, while it was cool to see how everyone paired up to take down those walkers, it looked very cheap on the visual effects side.
With that said, The Walking Dead’s series finale did what the Game of Thrones series finale should have done. That is, end the show with a coherent story. This is a great final episode. Even the Rick Grimes and Michonne scenes at the end gave us a small bite of what we can expect from their spinoff.
There is one more episode of The Walking Dead after this week and there is a ton to process.
The biggest story of the week is Judith being shot by Pamela. To me, this is a remix of the comic book scene when Sebastian shot and killed Rick Grimes. While that was a straight up assassination, this was an accidental crossfire in which she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wanted to see Pamela die once this happened. But I have a feeling that Pamela will be overthrown as the leader of The Commonwealth and to be jailed for her actions.
With that said, while the shootout scene was good, it reminded me of The Walking Dead’s eight’s season. I love that season, but just like the many opportunities Rick had to kill Negan, the same can be said for Pamela. How is it that Daryl had a clean view to shoot the fire extinguisher but yet he could not do this to Pamela before that. With that nitpick aside, the battle kept my attention.
Lydia getting bit was something I found to be unexpected. Cassady McClincy did a great job with her acting on the scene including when her wrist had to be cut off. Also to note, Aaron telling Lydia that she is loved by the family is a great touch of a warm feeling since she did not have that same love from her own mom regardless that Alpha protected her most of the time.
I do not expect Mercer to be in jail for long since he is working against The Commonwealth now. Plus, He has to be the one to help everyone that got boxed it with the walkers and variants by Pamela’s orders. It is a sticky situation that brought the family together!
Another easter egg we got that I liked is the way Daryl carried Judith which mirrored Rick carrying Carl Grimes when he first got shot. I think the scene would have been better without Judith saying “daddy” to leave it more ambiguous but that is just me.
I really enjoyed this one and it is my favorite of this final batch of episodes of The Walking Dead. Next week is the final episode ever which is going to be a big one!
Editor’s note, this interview took was scheduled to be published on Oct. 23 prior to our new server update.
Khary Payton has been a main character of The Walking Dead since the seventh season as Ezekiel. As the main show is wrapping up, Ezekiel and Negan had a conversation for the first time as he called the former Saviors leader out for coercing women for marrying him, killing his Kingdom residents, and pretty much letting him know that he will never forget what he did. Ezekiel is also part of the revolt against The Commonwealth.
With that said, I caught up with Khary Payton to talk about these developments along with his memories on the set in this exclusive interview.
How was Alexandria being turned into an outpost and labor camp approached by you?
“It came to me in the script. I didn’t get any input when I picked up the script, so I was like, ‘oh, this is cool.’ We’re going full circle, you know? After leaving Alexandria, it’s becoming another walk down memory lane and it’s going to be pretty cool. It’s going to be pretty interesting because. Because the time that we were shooting all of this stuff for Alexandria ends up being some of the coldest that I’ve spent shooting the show. And it’s and I feel like you can see it in the filming. It’s gray and dank.”
You and Jeffrey Dean Morgan finally had an exchange of dialogue for the first time. Were you satisfied with the outcome?
“Jeff and I were excited to finally work together. We’ve been on the show for years, and except maybe on a battlefield where arrows and bullets are flying and swords swinging, we weren’t having interaction. So this was the first time we actually had a conversation So we were looking forward to it. It was fun. I love the way he worked. And it was cool to finally get together and do it that way. It’s like it’s one of those things where life isn’t perfect. And when they hand you lemons, you make lemonade. When they hand you Negan, you use him to do what he does best, which is which is a little havoc. And hopefully this time it’ll pay off for people who deserve it. You know, I think that Ezekiel’s intent was to put his own feelings aside to take care of business.”
After the filming of the series concluded, what was the first thing you did when you went home and did you had time to reflect on your time on The Walking Dead?
“I went home and hugged my kids. Before the pandemic, I would fly home constantly. So even if I was away for a couple of weeks, that was as long as it was. So when the pandemic hit, it was like months at a time before I would see them again and that was really hard. So this was a grind getting to the end of the show. And, and I feel like I’ve still haven’t had a chance to take a deep breath and breathe it all in and understand what it’s meant to me and my life and career and all of that. Melissa McBride is probably the thing I will miss the most about the show. She is the greatest acting teacher I’ve ever had. I learned something beautiful and nuanced from her every time I’m on set with her. I don’t think I’ll ever know anyone like her again. And it was always magic when we were on set together. The thing is, she teaches you without even trying. She is a raw nerve and a live wire. And she feels and and takes aspects of so many things about from the script or just in the room surrounding you. She takes and uses it and she’s pointed out things to me along the way that have just changed my perspective on a scene and the way that we interact with each other.”
One of my favorite episodes from the previous season was “Walk With Us” when we saw The Hilltop burn down during that chaotic battle. Any moments you would like to share about your experience during that lengthy scene?
“I remember how awesome the kids were. I had one kid in my arms holding one’s hand and seven others running behind me and they were such little professionals. They listened and took direction. There’s all this fire and flames and horses running and all of this stuff. I’m proud of all of them. And that’s what I will remember most. I also remember that because we were right next to the fire and there were so many fun moments, the nights that we were shooting those scenes, with The Whisperers and the walkers. We’d all been waiting for this battle to happen all season. And it was and it felt so cathartic, you know, I remember that Andrew Lincoln video called Norman that night. And we all huddled around the phone and video chatted with Andrew Lincoln, who we hadn’t seen in so long. It was a cool night.”
If there is a question to ask about what you learned about tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead, the answer is, family is family.
That was on full display when Ezekiel stepped in front of The Commonwealth Troopers as they were about to execute Negan and his pregnant wife. That scene and the lines exchanged were some of the most emotional driven scenes of the season. I felt like Khary Payton put his all in delivering the speech as he made a believer out of me as the leader he once was.
Even though I am a huge fan of Negan, it was quite satisfying to see him get a taste of his own medicine for once to see what it is like being treated like crap. Negan used to do this to lower ranking members to The Saviors so it had to come back to him at one point. Jeffrey Dean Morgan really shines on this episode when it comes to his comedic timing in those serious situations.
My only drawback for this episode was Eugene’s trial. There could have been more time to present more things for his case for his defense. It wrapped up abruptly, but Mercer’s kick ass line got me hyped for the next episode.
And finally, Luke and Jules appeared out of nowhere to do what AMC has yet to do since episode 16. That is, update us on Oceanside. There are only two episodes left so I highly doubt we will ever see it again.
This is a much better episode than that mess of “Outpost 21” last week. The story is starting to feel like it is concluding. And bonus points for Rosita as she used that walker to devour Warden. Having a high regard for practical effects, that was really gruesome.