Jeffrey Dean Morgan on when we may see the 'massive' Walking Dead finale
Even though season 10 of The Walking Dead finished filming back in November 2019 — way before the coronavirus started spreading here in the United States — the AMC drama was unable to finish complicated post-production special effects on its season finale. That means the season-ender that was originally intended to air on April 12 remains in limbo.
So when will we get to see the 16th and final episode of season 10? We asked series star Jeffrey Dean Morgan when the man who plays Negan called into EW Live (SiriusXM, channel 109) along with wife Hilarie Burton to chat about their new quarantine talk show Friday Night in With the Morgans. “We had fun filming it,” says Morgan of the TWD finale. “I’ll tell you that, but I do not know when they’re going to finish it. I reckon four or five months from now we’ll get to see it. Which will be cool. It will be cool having a one-off, almost a Walking Dead movie in the middle of the season, I guess. So we’re excited about that aspect of it.”
So what can we expect when we finally do get to see the episode? “I think obviously things are going to come to some sort of a head with the Beta and his character,” teases Morgan of the impending conflict at the hospital tower where our heroes are holed up. “There has to be some sort of a resolution. Whether that carries over to next season. I’ll leave that open, because who knows. But we know he’s coming to wipe everybody out with his zombie horde so hopefully we’ll see that come to a head at some point. There has to be some sort of battle. Greg Nicotero directed it, so it’s going to be a big massive episode for sure.”
Nicotero has directed every Walking Dead premiere and finale starting in season 5, which have featured many a battle in the past, but cast and crew have seemed particularly excited about what they had filmed in episode 1016. It promised to put an exclamation point on what had been a big season for Negan as the former villain finally found redemption while taking out the current enemy Alpha along the way.
Jace Downs/AMC
“I got a chance this year to not only work with [Samantha Morton], who is obviously amazing, but Norman and Melissa,” says Morgan about his season. “I got to do stuff this year as far as working with people that was phenomenal for me. I think the arc was so much fun to play. The crazy thing, as you know, is we filmed everything out of order this year so to see it all kind of come together was amazing because half of them I was scrambling to figure out where the hell I was in the story! Because we were jumping from episode 2 to 8 to 4 to 12. It was a rough way to shoot as far as tracking what the hell was going on with each character. But it turned out great, and [showrunner Angela Kang] once again knocked the season out of the park. And I am particularly grateful for what she did with Negan and his arc, because it’s nice seeing another side of him, certainly.”
Not only is Morgan unsure when we will see the finale, but he has no idea when he will be sporting the leather jacket again, with production on season 11 indefinitely on hold. “Who knows when we go back to work,” says the actor. “I certainly don’t know when production is going to start again on The Walking Dead. When we’re going to see season 11 of The Walking Dead is such a f---ing mystery right now. It’s just a big question mark.”
Until then, you can enjoy Morgan reuniting with many of his TWD cohorts on Friday Night in With the Morgans.
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