‘Walking Dead’ times 3 equals a sequel and some surprises

AMC franchise announces “World Beyond” and extra episodes of the original series.

“The Walking Dead” made some news during Friday’s virtual Comic-Con@Home panel, illustrating how it’s adjusting to the production shutdown forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also welcomed back Lauren Cohan, who joined a panel of actors to talk about the return of her character, Maggie, last seen in the November Season 10 finale of the AMC drama.

That episode, postponed from its original April scheduling, will air Oct. 4 (9 EDT/PDT), followed by the premiere of the two-season event spinoff, “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” (10 EDT/ PDT), which also has been delayed from the spring.

“Fear the Walking Dead” will launch Season 6 a week later on Oct. 11 (9 EDT/ PDT). The three “Dead” shows were featured in consecutive online panels Friday, since in-person Comic-Con in San Diego was canceled this year.

The production shutdown will knock the original series off its traditional launch schedule for Season 11 – halfseasons of eight episodes starting with an October premiere and followed by a February midseason opener – but executive producer Angela Kang revealed a surprise for fans: An additional six episodes will be added to Season 10, “an extension beyond the finale.”

“Those will run in early 2021, if all goes well,” said Kang, but that “if” is a big one considering the uncertainty of returning to production.

Writers are working on new episodes, but producers don’t know when shooting can begin, and Kang acknowledged that production teams have to alter how they make the show.

“Sometimes, the limits placed on you lead to a lot of creativity,” she said. “It’s important to us that everybody feels comfortable when shooting and safe when they do it. If that means changing things up a little bit, that’s not a huge burden to us.”

Cohan, who starred in ABC’s sincecanceled “Whiskey Cavalier” after leaving “Dead,” joined Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride and other co-stars after a finale clip, first released in the spring, showed Maggie’s reappearance.

The character, who had left Hilltop with Georgie during a time jump in Rick Grime’s last episode in Season 9, is seen picking up a letter, presumably from Carol (McBride), hidden in a secret location. It catches her up on her fellow survivors’ losses: “You need to come back. Jesus is dead. So is Tara. Enid. They were murdered by a group called The Whisperers.”

Maggie “and Carol have been in communication,” said Cohan, who also alluded to the appearance of young Hershel, the son of Maggie and her murdered husband, Glenn.

She also made clear that this isn’t a cameo, as has been the case for some other “Dead” alums: “The most important thing is she’s coming back.”

Fans got a few details about spinoff “World Beyond,” which is set 10 years after the zombie apocalypse and follows a group of teens who are part of the first generation raised in the postapocalyptic world.

Sisters Hope and Iris, played by Alexa Mansour and Aliyah Royale, leave the relative comfort of a safe environment to go on an important but dangerous mission, said executive producer Scott Gimple.

“Rick (Grimes) woke up after a twoweek coma to find the world had changed,” he said. “These two sisters don’t wake up from a coma, but they do wake up from the way they were looking at life. And they go out in the world and discover a new world.”

A new clip revealed a world still full of zombies, here called “Empties,” along with a mysterious military force that appears to be led by Julia Ormond’s Elizabeth, who arrives by black helicopter.

During the “Fear” panel, producers said the show had just about finished filming the first half of Season 6 when production stopped. As with many shows, they will resume “when we can come back safely,” executive producer Andrew Chambliss said.

The fate of Morgan Jones (Lennie James) remains up in the air.