The ending cliffhanger at the end of The Walking Dead left fans frustrated and pissed off, wanting the next season to start as soon as possible. The end of season six was a hard one and in case you’ve missed out, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) killed a TBD main character with his beloved baseball bat.
Since fans were so upset the series creator, Robert Kirkman said the show will most likely never leave fans hanging in suspense like that in the future.
During an open interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kirkman admitted fans of The Walking Dead, seriously lashed out at him and his writers. When the complaints hit the studio and eventually the writers, everyone decided to let go of the suspenseful, cliffhanging, season finales.
I guess the way Kirkman looked at it, from watching the interview is, you have to try new things in the show. It’s important to keep fans energized and out of stagnation with the typical endings.
But if you ask me, that’s exactly what the fans want and why we all love The Walking Dead. It’s the general feeling of dread and terror as our favorite protagonist fights off another horde of “walkers.”
Kirkman is correct from one standpoint however. The reality is, when you try new things in a show with such a massive cult following like The Walking Dead, you win some and lose some. By the way, those are the words of Kirkman himself.
What he said exactly was, “You get to season six on a show and you try new things and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.”
His hope is that fans of the show, people like you and I, understand the main reason behind trying new things on the show. It’s to keep the show engaging and exciting. Scott Gimple is doing his best with all his effort to keep the show new and fresh episode to episode for us all.
As long as they keep throwing us suspenseful scenes and keep our favorites alive, I’ll be happy. And even keeping the characters alive is debatable for a great series. Sometimes those are the shockers we need to keep the show fresh and make room for new blood to come in. Although, I don’t know or can imagine, who would replace Rick Grimes or Daryl Dixon.
In an interview with TV Guide after the end of The Walking Dead, Season Six, finale Gimple stated that they have an understanding of why they do what they do and always do it with the best intentions. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So it could be said it’s also the road to frustrating some fans from time to time. In any case I believe they genuinely care about their audience.
*Editor’s Note: This article was edited September 19, 2016 for accuracy.
