The snowball effects of the coronavirus shutdown are extending to current television seasons in a big way. It was previously reported that many current seasons of broadcast TV showswould have to end abruptly, having not had time to film their final episodes of the season before Hollywood was put on hiatus to help battle the spread of the coronavirus. But now it appears as though the mightyThe Walking Deadwasn’t quite finished with its tenth season, and will instead have to end its story with the penultimate episode instead of the season finale.
AMC released the following statement explaining why theWalking DeadSeason 10 finale has been delayed:
“Current events have unfortunately made it impossible to complete post-production onThe Walking DeadSeason 10 finale, so the current season will end with its 15th episode on April 5th. The planned finale will appear as a special episode later in the year.”
Indeed, the entireWalking Deaduniverse has been impacted by the shutdown. The new two-season spinoff seriesThe Walking Dead: World Beyondwas slated to premiere on AMC in April afterTWDSeason 10 wrapped up, but the network announced last week thatWorld Beyondwas being pushed back to premiere at a later date.
Not only are post-production issues impacted, but AMC is telling a larger story with itsWalking Deaduniverse, and episodes of one show were planned to set up the events of another series. So it’s possible that the Season 10 finale ofThe Walking Deadwas actually meant to lead right intoWorld Beyond, which is a younger-skewing show that follows the generation of kids and teens who’ve grown up in the apocalypse and have no memory of the pre-zombie world. If the Season 10 finale can’t be completed, then it’s possible the first episode ofWorld Beyondmay not have been in a position to be aired.
Expect other shows to similarly be impacted, but networks are doing their best to ensure fans get closure to their stories. For example, the series finale ofSupernaturalhad not yet been filmed when everything shut down, but the show’s producers have ensured that once everyone is able to go back to work, they’ll still film that finale. Even if that doesn’t happen for months.
