The Walking Dead capped off an 11-season run on Sunday evening, with the celebs of AMC’s zombie hit celebrating the collection finale at a fan occasion in Los Angeles.
Norman Reedus, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan and Melissa McBride, alongside their costars of previous and current, walked the carpet at downtown’s Orpheum Theatre and weighed in on wrapping up the longtime present.
“These last few episodes really moved me in all ways the show has cumulatively done over the years, so I loved it,” Cohan advised The Hollywood Reporter of studying the ultimate scripts and studying now the collection would finish. “I think it demonstrates the friendship that these characters have; I think it demonstrates how we deal with loss and how inevitable loss is, and how we celebrate being together. And ironically, that’s really how I feel tonight, too.”
As followers witnessed, Sunday evening’s finale ended on a bloody but hopeful observe — with some unhappy shock deaths alongside the best way — and noticed the characters set to go their separate methods. Morgan, who stated he was in denial all through capturing that the present was actually ending, admitted that “every time I read a script I knew I was getting closer to the end, so it was like this horrible countdown that I was in denial about most of the time.” He additionally revealed that he hadn’t watched any of the ultimate eight episodes, and wished “to be alone, I want to be able to cry, I want to be able to process it. I haven’t watched to watch with my kid or my wife even, and I’ve been working, that’s been my excuse to everyone.”
Morgan took his plan so critically that though the night was scheduled to indicate the finale to 1000’s of followers contained in the theater after which movie a stay Talking Dead present for AMC, he dedicated to “go find the bar in the back, and I’m going to drink during it and not watch it.”
Timothy Norris/Getty Images
Looking again at these ultimate days on set, Reedus remembered “there was a lot of goofing off in between takes because we weren’t going to see each other for a long time; some tears, there might have been some alcohol rolling around in the camera crew’s truck.” Cast members who weren’t even in a day’s scenes would come to help these actors wrapping up their scenes, as Cohan added, “The storyline just had ways of bringing us all together in little pockets and in a very big way together at the end. It was emotional, it was things we’d never done on the show and a lot of things we had.”
Though The Walking Dead has come to an finish, AMC has made a serious dedication to the franchise, setting spinoffs for Reedus (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), a two-hander with Morgan and Cohan (The Walking Dead: Dead City) and an untitled collection that includes the return of Danai Gurira and Andrew Lincoln.
Reedus stated that his collection, which is ready in France, “is very different — it has a different tone, the photography is very different, it’s all in French, the zombie threat is different,” including, “after 12 years, it feels nice, [doing] some of the things I’d always hoped to be able to do.”
Cohan and Morgan simply completed capturing the primary season of their present, and Cohan stated she’s “excited about where all of the other stories go, and the possibility for the intersection of them: “I think the fans are going to enjoy characters that they love being seen in new challenges and maybe seeing each other again.”
Morgan added that he feels superb about their present, however says transferring onto a by-product with a largely new forged has been “fucking weird.”
“Looking at video village or the cast chairs, like, where is everybody? It’s just different,” he continued, earlier than teasing that potential crossovers and visitor appearances could also be within the playing cards. “I’m happy to still be playing Negan, but I’m sad I don’t get an opportunity to work with these folks anymore — unless I do!”
Lauren Ridloff, who stated she was “on the edge of my seat the whole time” watching the finale for the primary time, summed up the present state of the franchise: “We have started a universe. This is the end of the beginning, and we’re entering into a new phase.”
Inside the occasion, the place host Chris Hardwick hosted a stay model of his Talking Dead aftershow, Gurira made an look after her character Michonne and Lincoln’s Rick Grimes had shock roles within the finale.
“I am so excited to be here. I have to say, watching it tonight was really momentous for me, I cried many times,” she advised the gang. “I was so astounded by the work that you guys do and have done, I was floored. You guys have just done such an incredible job doing the show and to finish it like that, I’m truly gobsmacked. I really am. I adore you people, just so much respect and love right now.”
