After 12 years and 11 seasons fans of The Walking Dead said goodbye on November 20. While the main series has ended, there are several spin-offs in the works including one with Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), Maggie (Lauren Cohen) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and of course Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira).
The finale to The Walking Dead saw a one year time jump. The Commonwealth is under new leadership with Ezekiel and Mercer, Carol has taken on a new leadership role as well. Daryl heads off -finally- to seek out new lands and new people, while promising to return if he finds Rick and Michonne. As the screen fades to black as Daryl rides off into the unknown, we see Rick Grimes. In alternating shots we see Rick and Michonne writing letters around a camp fire to their children, Judith and RJ. The final shot of the series shows Judith and RJ standing above the Commonwealth gates and looking out into a hopefully bright future as she tells her brother, “We’re the ones who live”. Echoing the same line her father spoke in season 5.
This is the ending fans got but according to a report from Insider, it was not always the planned ending. In the alternate ending we would have seen a jump 10 years into the future with Judith and RJ, now grown up, sitting in a car with adult versions of Rosita’s daughter Coco and Aaron’s daughter Gracie. The group are carrying out the legacy their parents started and are out looking for more survivors.
“And through the scene, we come to realize it’s adult RJ and Judith. Other adult versions of the kids are in the back — Coco, Gracie, etc. They’re out there, looking to escort any survivors back to their communities. Continuing the legacy of their parents,”
The final moments of the show would have shown Rick Grimes Jr. speaking out over a radio saying
“If you can hear me, answer back. This is Rick Grimes.”
The final words of the show would have been a survivor responding back “Hello?”.
The report concludes that the reason this ending was scrapped was due to the fact that it would not have helped develop the currently planned spin-off shows.
While the ending we got was hopeful, I think it would have been pretty cool to see the series end much in the same way it began.
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