We owe it to the fans to really kill it... to make it the biggest finale ever
As bonus episodes of The Walking Dead arrive, talks to stars Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride about the hit series coming to an end
NORMAN REEDUS had no idea what he was getting himself into when he first read a script for The Walking Dead.
The first series followed a police officer Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, trying to find his family, after a zombie apocalypse spread across the US.
More than 10 years and 10 seasons later, it has become one of the world’s most successful TV shows.
While many major stars have left, including Lincoln, Florida-born Norman, who plays Daryl Dixon, still remains a lynchpin of the cast.
“We went through a stage on this show where people were dying every week on the show, and it was like Survivor or something,” quips the 52-year-old motorcycle enthusiast, who also has his own travel series, Ride With Norman Reedus
“You were like, ‘Tune in this week, see who gets eaten!’
“And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s not the direction I feel like this
GEORGIA HUMPHREYS
show should go’. But it’s had so many peaks and valleys and twists and turns. It’s been quite the ride.”
Season 11, which will see the main Walking Dead storyline finish, is delayed until next year, but in the meantime, we are getting a batch of six new episodes to round out the 10th season, which aired in 2020.
The Walking Dead 10C follows the survivors picking themselves back up after the end of the Whisperers War.
Discussing where we find Carol Peletier in these episodes, 55-year-old star Melissa McBride says: “What she’s done, the repercussions of the choices that she made, are not lost on her at all.
“There are loose ends there that she needs to tie up, and she wants to fix this relationship with Daryl.”
Norman, who lives with his partner, actress and model Diane Kruger, and their young daughter, adds that the six episodes “are really intimate”, and that we will learn more of Daryl’s backstory.
Kentucky-born Melissa admits it’s “a little ironic” to be shooting a show about a global pandemic in a global pandemic. “I just think there was a lot of gratitude for even being able to go and create,” she says. “that was a challenge, and I think we all did well.”
As well as upcoming spin-off The Walking Dead: World Beyond, a number of Rick Grimes movies are in the pipeline and, recently, there’s also been news of a potential Daryl and Carol spin-off.
Asked for the latest on that, Norman – who also shares a son with his former partner, supermodel Helena Christensen – muses:
“I don’t know, I’m waiting to find out myself. I know a little bit, but not enough to really talk about it.
“But I can tell you what my hopes are for it; my hopes are that they kick us out of the gate like a rocket ship.”
He continues: “I think we owe it to ourselves and owe it to the fans of The Walking Dead to really kill it this last season, to really make it as exciting as the biggest finale of the biggest season ever.”
It’s had so many peaks and valleys and twists and turns. It’s been quite the ride
Norman Reedus on horror hit The Walking Dead
■ The Walking Dead 10c airs on Fox on Monday at 9pm