“TWD” will finally face the smartest zombies from Season 1 in the Final Eps

• A breed of smarter zombies will be introduced in the final episodes of “The Walking Dead.”
• Showrunner Angela Kang told press at SDCC that it’s a flashback to some walkers in the first season.
• While clever, it’s something that should have been introduced a season ago and feels like it was added just to serve up future spinoffs.

When “The Walking Dead” returns to television for its final eight-episode run this fall, it will finally address one of the show’s biggest zombie plot holes from season one.

What happened to those smarter walkers who could pick up rocks, smash them through doors and try to climb stairs in the show’s first season that were never mentioned again?

During the San Diego Comic-Con press conference attended by Insider, host Angela Kang and the cast were asked about a younger race of the undead teased at the end of the series’ newest trailer. Kang said their addition was no accident, saying they will have ties to the beginning of the series.

“I think with the walkers, in a way it’s a flashback to some of the walkers that we saw in the very first season of ‘The Walking Dead,’ but not all of them ever met those walkers,” Kang told the press. “It’s almost like it was a variation that was just regional.”

It is expected that the final eight episodes of the series will introduce a faster undead race. In the latest trailer for the series, which debuted at San Diego Comic-Con, Aaron (Ross Marquand) said he had heard stories of walkers that could climb walls and open doors. We then see a tease of a walker going over a fence.

‘TWD’ universe hints at different race of walkers in December 2021 spin-off show

Their addition is not entirely shocking.

The “Walking Dead” universe recently introduced the idea of ​​a variant race of faster walkers. During a five-minute coda scene following the series finale of spin-off “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” last December, “TWD” season one CDC virologist Dr. Edwin Jenner (Noah Emmerich) reported a “variation” not yet seen in the United States.

Viewers then see a woman, who was shot and killed, revive faster than what we’re used to seeing. (Typically, it takes a person a few hours or more to turn into a zombie). The zombie woman appeared faster and more aggressive than universe walker fans are used to.

Most disturbingly, the woman revived despite being shot in the head. Usually, in the “TWD” universe, when someone gets shot in the head, they die and don’t become zombies. Unless the bullet conveniently missed the woman’s brain, the “TWD: World Beyond” code suggested that there is a type of undead that is much harder to kill, or that simply doesn’t die.

At the time, “TWD” universe head Scott M. Gimple told Insider the walker is not superpowered, but different,” Gimple said. “I hope that people’s imaginations are ‘fired’ about what this and what we could mean. could see.”

These smarter walkers should have been introduced years ago instead of a footnote in the show’s final episodes.

During the press conference, Kang added that the walkers teased in the new trailer will put Daryl and the other survivors on guard.

“Whenever there’s a change in the rules that means our people just have to be a lot more on their game because they realize that the methods they use to survive don’t work the same way,” Kang told the press. “Our survivors, being very, very intelligent, will try to adapt to this. But this will just be one of, many conflicts they face.”

It’s not like the team really needs another new threat to be introduced in its final eight episodes. The show also needs to wrap up the vast history of the Commonwealth from the comics.

The Smartest Zombie subplot is original to the AMC series.

On the one hand, it’s a clever solution for those who regularly rewatch the series or revisit the first season and note the marked difference in the walkers that former showrunner Frank Darabont introduced in the series and the more docile fans were accustomed to. in later times.

Kang has found other clever ways since taking over “TWD” as showrunner in Season 9 to streamline moments from past seasons with the present. More recently, the series made a clever political connection between the Commonwealth leader, Pamela Milton, and a former leader of Alexandria, something the comics never did.

However, the introduction of smarter walkers at the end of “The Walking Dead,” when the season ran an expansive 24 episodes, may have some viewers wondering why this threat is introduced so late in the game.

While it’s a clever way to finally address some rock-crushing walkers in the first season, smarter zombies is something the show should have thought of doing years ago to shake things up, keep the series fresh and keep the threat of the dead as just that, a threat.

Instead, as we head into the show’s final eight episodes starting October 2nd, the addition of smarter walkers seems less about looking back and paying homage to where the show started and more about setting things up for the many to come. series spin-offs, including those based on Daryl, Negan and Maggie, and Rick and Michonne.

When Insider asked at the press conference if the series would be closed for good or if it would be more open-ended as we move into the series’ many spinoffs, Kang told us, “the goal is that even if there were no spinoffs, it would feel like there’s a closure of the show”.

“The show itself needs its own ending, but the doors are left open as they so often are in life and as they were even at the end of the comic,” Kang added. “There’s always a story that continues once the story you’re telling on the screen ends.”

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