'The Walking Dead' holds last NYCC panel ever, teases 'final Pokemon' evolution heading toward series finale

The cast and crew of The Walking Dead shambled into Manhattan Saturday afternoon to celebrate the mothership show's final (and poignant) appearance at New York Comic Con ahead of the series finale next month. “It all comes together," teased inscrutable Walking Dead brand manager, Scott M. Gimple, of the remaining seven episodes. "All these characters come to their conclusions, their final form. They move to their final Pokémon, as it were."

While several spinoffs with major characters — particularly Negan, Maggie, Daryl, Rick, and Michonne — have already been confirmed by AMC, Gimple assured fans the eleventh season will wrap a genuinely definitive bow around the sprawling undead saga that began over a decade ago. "We do tell the end of the story of The Walking Dead," he added. "Yes, there are these other shows, but this is how everything does come together into what it all meant."

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who never thought Negan would make it this far, summed it up best in just eight simple words: "It's been one hell of a f—ing ride."

When asked about Daryl's mystery spinoff (it's still without a title), Reedus confirmed that it takes place in France, will feature "a lot of familiar faces," and rocks a brand-new aesthetic. "It's epic in scale," he declared. "It's f—ing epic. I've been on location scouts over there for a bit, I've been talking to sound people. It’s crazy what we we’re gonna do over there. I think France is gonna have a f—in' heart attack, which is good; which is what I want. It has a different look, it has a different feel, it has a different sound to it. It has all the things you like about the show, but new people experiencing them in a different kind of way ... It's gonna very cool."

"Daryl, in Frace, is experiencing things that he hasn't experienced before in life and with walkers," continued Gimple, essentially confirming that the spinoff directly connects to the stinger featured in the Season 2 finale of World Beyond, which alluded to French scientists having a direct role in the walker outbreak.

The Negan-Maggie spinoff — Dead City — will officially premiere in April, Gimple announced onstage (a slew of first look production stills were also shown). "It is a very, very, very different world. New York City, in the apocalypse, is unlike any place that we've seen in the apocalypse," he hinted. "It's a madhouse."

"There's us, there's zip-lines, there's New York, there's some Jersey, there's some walkers," Dean Morgan teased. "There's some horrible people on the way, there's also some great people along the way."

Of course, the relationship between Negan and Maggie will forever be marred by the fact that Negan kinda murdered Maggie's husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun), in cold blood with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. But who knows? Maybe they'll become best buds in the undead version of the Big Apple. "It's the most unlikely two people that you would ever want to see together and it makes very good to see us together because it is the hardest situation that we both have to be in and the need is bigger than the fear," Cohan concluded.

New episodes of The Walking Dead premiere on AMC every Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern. AMC+ subscribers can access them a week early.

Click here for all of SYFY WIRE's continuing coverage of New York Comic Con 2022.

If you're looking to satisfy your zombie craving immediately, head over to Peacock and check out the movie that kickstarted the entire genre: George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Or check out the SYFY original series, Day of the Dead.

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