It's a bittersweet time for The Walking Dead franchise. Fans are already looking toward the future with a number of spinoffs on the horizon. The Daryl spinoff promises to reunite viewers with some of TWD's missing characters, and Isle of the Dead is being highly touted by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. To make things even better, Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira appeared at San Diego Comic-Con to announce a brand-new Rick and Michonne spinoff.
However, The Walking Dead has only a few episodes remaining -- and it's not quite done with its main storyline yet. There's a lot to wrap up in Season 11C as Daryl, Maggie and the gang take on Lance Hornsby and the Commonwealth. There will even be a subplot that finally fills in a massive plot hole that dates back to TWD's first season.
AMC announced the release date for its final batch of episodes during its SDCC panel discussion, which also included the official Season 11C trailer. The first 30 seconds was a nostalgic recap of TWD's history. Characters like Glenn, Abraham and Carl made quick appearances as the trailer zoomed toward the present day and the massive Commonwealth conflict that will dominate Season 11C. But one particularly harrowing moment stood out.
There was a post-credits-esque scene that showed Aaron at an unknown location, talking to someone off-camera. He said, "I've heard stories of walkers that could climb walls and open doors. I was never sure if they were just stories." As he said that, a walker started to climb a fence and a door handle started to turn. Those who saw The Walking Dead: World Beyond's post-credit scene would have been reminded of the advanced walkers in Francethat quickly reanimated, maintained some intelligence and could run. However, longtime fans of TWD may also remember the intelligent walkers from Season 1.
At various points in Season 1, walkers did some pretty freaky things. One picked up a doll and another one used a brick to break a glass door. They also climbed a fence, opened a door and were able to avoid obstacles. But since Season 1, TWD hasn't shown any more "smart" zombies. The show underwent a lot of changes between Season 1 and 2 -- most importantly switching showrunners from Frank Darabont to Glen Mazzara, which is touted as the primary cause for the lack of zombie IQ. ScreenRant pointed out that Robert Kirkman wrote the zombies as brainless in the original comic, too.
The Season 11 trailer made it very clear that TWD is finally going to open that can of worms. Smart walkers will undoubtedly raise the stakes for the final season, but they will also be difficult to explain. Simple evolution can't be the reason; if that were the case, all of the zombies throughout the series would've been evolving. One possible solution would be that the smart zombies have something to do with the Civic Republic Military's experiments, but again, that wouldn't explain the original smart walkers from Season 1. TWD has some explaining to do, and fans will be eagerly be awaiting the answer.
The Walking Dead Season 11C premieres Sunday, Oct. 2.