The Walking Dead to End With Season 11

AMC is sticking an extra-large, brain-splattering fork in The Walking Dead — just the show, though, not the franchise.

The cabler announced Wednesday that the zombie phenom’s upcoming 11th season will be its last — but it will be a loooooong goodbye: The mothership’s final season will consist of a super-sized 24 episodes, with the first 12 airing in 2021 and the final 12 bowing in 2022.

In revealing the end date news, AMC also confirmed that it has ordered two new Walking Dead spinoffs — one centering on Norman Reedus’ Daryl and Melissa McBride’s Carol (to premiere in 2023), and another anthology-themed offshoot (read more about the two new series here).

For those keeping track at home, the two new shows bring to four the number of spinoffs the franchise has spawned (joining Fear the Walking Dead and the forthcoming The Walking Dead: World Beyond.) AMC also has the Rick-centric feature films starring Andrew Lincoln in the pipeline.

Before Walking Dead kicks off its XXL 11th and final season, the delayed Season 10 fauxnale is set to air on Oct. 4, followed by six bonus episodes in early 2021.

“It’s been 10 years ‘gone bye;’ what lies ahead are two more to come and stories and stories to tell beyond that,” said franchise overlord Scott Gimple in a statement. “What’s clear is that this show has been about the living, made by a passionate cast, team of writer/producers, producers, and crew, bringing to life the vision put forth by Robert Kirkman in his brilliant comic — and supported by the best fans in the world. We have a lot of thrilling story left to tell on TWD, and then, this end will be a beginning of more Walking Dead — brand new stories and characters, familiar faces and places, new voices, and new mythologies. This will be a grand finale that will lead to new premieres. Evolution is upon us. The Walking Dead lives”

Added showrunner Angela Kang: “I look forward to digging in with our brilliant writers, producers, directors, cast and crew to bring this epic final chapter of Robert Kirkman’s story to life for our fans over the next two years. The Walking Dead flagship series has been my creative home for a decade and so it’s bittersweet to bring it to an end, but I could not be more excited to be working with Scott Gimple and AMC to develop a new series for Daryl and Carol. Working with Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride has been a highlight of my career and I’m thrilled that we get to keep telling stories together.”