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The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman kept the suprise ending of the comic not only from fans, but also TWD showrunner Scott Gimple
The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple wasn’t given a heads up when Robert Kirman abruptly ended the comic book series.
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The Walking Dead comic book series was known for its surprising twists and turns, but few were more surprising than the way it ended. When The Walking Dead #193 was released on July 3, 2019, readers were surprised to see a letter column announcing that the series had concluded. Not only had series creator Robert Kirkman kept this a secret, but he had maximized the surprise by issuing fake solicitations for future issues.
If you think the producers of the AMC television series were given a heads-up, you’re sadly mistaken. However, The Walking Dead showrunner is glad Kirkman kept him in the dark, because he enjoyed being surprised.
“The way that the comic book ended was brilliant,” The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple says during a panel at New York Comic Con 2022. “Robert sprung it on all of us, and I love that he did that. I love that I did not get a call with a heads up on that because he ruined many things over the years for me as a reader.”
The final issue features a time skip, where we see a grown Carl Grimes in a rebuilt society. Gimple hopes that one day he’ll be able to explore that version of the world.
“I’ll tell you that I do want to go into that world, and I will say that when I did talk to Robert about that, he was sort of elbowing me a little bit. He’s like 'You see what I did there?' He created another world for us to explore, and I do hope to explore it one day.”
For more on The Walking Dead, watch the complete panel below:
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