‘The Walking Dead’ Finale Is a Conclusion For All 8 Seasons
Scott M. Gimple is one episode away from hanging his Walking Dead showrunner hat. When this Sunday’s season 8 finale airs it will mark Gimple’s final episode with the series before he transitions to another role within The Walking Dead/Fear the Walking Dead franchise and he’s passing the torch to new showrunner Angela Kang.
It’s super weird, but we had been planning this for a long, long time. In fact, I started this year talking to the actors and producers and everything about the change, soI have been living with it a great deal of time. I just still… I love show-running. I love show-running this show, and it’s definitely tough to let that aspect go, but working on both shows has been awesome. Working with Angela has been awesome, working with [Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg on Fear the Walking Dead] has been awesome,” Gimple told EW.
However, even though he’s saying his goodbye, he finds comfort in the fact that it’s not a permanent departure.
“When I finished my last mix, it was very late, and I was driving through the WB lot and it was empty — it was deserted like the end of the world. And it was very weird driving home that night from the last one. It didn’t exactly feel over, it just felt different. It’s definitely not retirement, which would be super sweet, but it’s just a whole host of different responsibilities and challenges.”
The season 8 finale will bring a welcomed end to a nearly three season-long battle between the Saviors and Rick’s group, but Gimple says that it does more than just end the “All out War” in that it will also put a bow on the first eight seasons collectively.
“This episode isn’t just like these 15 episodes coming to a conclusion, but Angela and myself and the writers had always talked about this in many ways being sort of the conclusion of the first eight seasons. This show will be very much a new show next year and with a bigger, new narrative. It was something I was really excited about getting into even before season 8. And so there was just a certain weight in the air of the kind of conclusion that we were getting closer to. It was a weird graduation for everybody.”
This past season of the series has made some decisions that will forever alter the story of The Walking Dead and it’s calming to hear that they will be wrapping up a lot of the character’s multiple seasons-long arc’s and starting fresh with season 9. What are your thoughts on Gimple’s exit and his promise for the finale? Let us know!
Having studied Media & Writing at James Madison University, I always knew that I wanted to do some type of creative writing, but being able to write about zombies, Starks, and superheroes on a daily basis for Fan Fest is my actual dream. While I probably shouldn’t be as proud as I am to be so similar to Nick Miller, I do hope to one day write my own “Pepperwood Chronicles’.
