“The Walking Dead” premiered on AMC on October 31, 2010, and ended on November 20, 2022. Eleven seasons, 177 episodes. Frank Darabont developed it from the comic book by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard.
Trailer, via Skybound.
Rick Grimes Comes Out of the Coma
The premise never stops being the engine. A sheriff’s deputy wakes from a coma to find modern civilization gone. The dead walk. The living are worse.
Andrew Lincoln played Rick from the pilot until his departure in the ninth season, and returns as a special guest star in season 11. Rick leads a group of survivors, then becomes the leader of the Alexandria Safe-Zone.
The early cast set the terms. Jon Bernthal played Shane, Rick’s former police partner and best friend, whose rivalry with Rick turns intense in the second season. Sarah Wayne Callies played Lori Grimes, Rick’s wife, who had an affair with Shane when she believed Rick was dead. Laurie Holden played Andrea, a former civil rights attorney in the original Atlanta group. Jeffrey DeMunn played Dale, the older member who owned the RV and often served as the voice of reason.
Walkers and the People Who Fight Them
Survivors of a zombie apocalypse try to stay alive under near-constant threat from the dead, called “walkers.” With modern civilization collapsed, they also have to face other human survivors who have formed groups and communities with their own laws and morals. Sometimes that leads to open conflict.
That second threat is what separates the show from a simple monster-of-the-week exercise. The walkers are a condition. The people are the story.
Steven Yeun played Glenn Rhee, a former pizza delivery boy who saved Rick’s life, began a relationship with Maggie Greene, and later married her. Chandler Riggs played Carl Grimes, Rick and Lori’s young son, forced to mature and learn to survive. Norman Reedus played Daryl Dixon, the group’s primary hunter, who becomes a key member and Rick’s trusted lieutenant. Melissa McBride played Carol Peletier, originally a meek housewife who overcomes domestic abuse to become a skilled, resourceful fighter.
Deaths Decided by the Writing Room
The show ran on a large rotating ensemble. Departures were usually determined by the writing, with characters killed off or written off as the story needed. Cast members were generally told ahead of time, but otherwise kept to secrecy.
Two examples make the point.
- Steven Yeun, who played Glenn Rhee from the pilot through the season seven premiere, knew of his character’s death for a year but had to keep quiet.
- Chandler Riggs, who played Carl Grimes through the eighth season, was told of his character’s departure during filming in the weeks leading into his final episodes.
A few actors left under their own terms, due to other commitments or changes, and the writing adopted the plot around them. Andrew Lincoln announced his plan to leave at the start of the ninth season. He found that having to spend half a year in the United States for filming left him missing out on his family in the United Kingdom. Lincoln completed five episodes in the season to close out Rick’s storyline within the series. He was originally planned to be continued in three films.
Danai Gurira and the Miniseries
In July 2022, it was announced that Lincoln, along with Danai Gurira, will star in a six-episode miniseries in the place of the three films.
Lauren Cohan played Maggie Greene since the second season. As contract negotiations began for the ninth season, Cohan had been given the opportunity to star in Whiskey Cavalier, limiting how much time she could give the show. Cohan appeared as Maggie for the first five episodes of the season. In October 2019, it was confirmed that Cohan would return.
That is not a tidy machine. It is a show that kept rebuilding itself while it was running.
The Cast That Finished the Run
By the end, the credited cast read like a different show from the one that premiered in 2010. The title sequence and “also starring” credits included:
- Cohan as Maggie Greene
- Reedus as Daryl Dixon
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan Smith
- McBride as Carol Peletier
- Christian Serratos as Rosita Espinosa
- Seth Gilliam as Gabriel Stokes
- Ross Marquand as Aaron
- Josh McDermitt as Eugene Porter
- Khary Payton as Ezekiel Sutton
- Cooper Andrews as Jerry
- Callan McAuliffe as Alden
- Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes
That is a deep bench, and it is the reason the show survived its own losses.
The series is the first television series within The Walking Dead franchise. Together, the show and the comic book series form the core of that franchise. That is the part that matters most historically.
What the Show Got Right
The show’s best decision was to treat the walkers as weather. They are always there, they are always dangerous, and they are not the point. The point is what people do to each other when the rules are gone.
The show’s second-best decision was casting. Reedus turned Daryl from a supporting hunter into a lead. McBride took Carol from a meek housewife to a fighter and made every step of that believable. Yeun made Glenn the group’s conscience without making him a saint. Bernthal’s Shane is still the show’s cleanest study of a man coming apart.
The show’s weakness is length. Eleven seasons and 177 episodes is a lot of story. Not every season earns its episode count. That is the cost of a rotating cast and a writing room that has to keep the machine running.
The Score and What It Means
The show’s critical score sits at 8.2 out of 10, with a Metacritic score of 82 out of 100. That feels right. It is not a 9. It is not a 7. It is a show with a great premise, a great cast, and a long tail that occasionally drags.
If you have never seen it, the pilot still works. If you stopped somewhere in the middle, the final run is better than its reputation suggests. The Walking Dead earned its place. It fought for it, season after season, and it kept going after its lead walked away.
What stays with you is not the gore. It is the paperwork of survival — who leads, who leaves, who gets told the truth and who gets kept in the dark.
The Walking Dead gets 8.2 of 10.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.