The logical thing at this point is that they were all dead and well dead. Both the panda of survivors persecuted until exhaustion by the zombies and the walking dead themselves, buried by the forgetfulness of the parish that for years did not know how to live without them on screen. But no. There continue the boys of The Walking Dead , giving war almost a decade later with a tenth season just released - every Monday a new chapter in Fox at 10 pm - and a more confirmed a few days ago: The eleventh! The great AMC phenomenon still has rope despite the inevitable decline in audience ratings.

The explanation lies in the love - up to a certain unlikely point - of his legions. It is palpable every time it gives them to leave the forests of Georgia where they have shot season after season. In the last Comic Con of San Diego, Norman Reedus (Daryl), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan), Danai Gurira (Michonne) and company took the nth mass bath before their meeting with a group of foreign journalists.

That is blamed for being still alive. "There is no other way to keep all this going," Dean Morgan admits to Papel after being entertained by a group of followers. "This is the most important press campaign we do throughout the year because it transmits the support of the fans. They gave flight to the first six episodes of the series and 9 years later we are still doing well with these same people ".

Actually, not so much. The numbers of the premiere of the tenth season in the US have not been good, the worst in the history of the series, in fact. Last Sunday’s 4 million viewers accounted for 1.4% of total adult viewers aged 18 to 49, 34% less than the premiere of the ninth season.

Even so, two more seasons are planned, this and the next, and two parallel series. To the success of Fear The Walking Dead , which is already running through its sixth batch of episodes, a third creation has been added, without title yet, which will start in 2020. In addition, three films will be produced following the footsteps of Rick Grimes, character played by Andrew Lincoln , who left the ship last year.

"It's a strange feeling," admits Dean Morgan. "Like not having all the people who have fallen down the road and I think they will always be there in spirit. But the fact that they are Norman [Reedus] and Melissa [McBride] gives us a certain base, a structure. I don't think you can fill those gaps, but we will do our best to do our best in the future. "

The weight now falls to Reedus, sitting next to him at a round table at the Hard Rock hotel in San Diego, which understands "perfectly that people want to do other things," in reference to the farewell of his friend Lincoln. His challenge is to get away from the "common places" of Daryl Dixon, the southern redneck and former right hand of Grimes, and escape the comfort of having played the same man for many years. "If you just do the same, you get stuck, and the exciting thing about this is that the change is constant, in my character and those around," he analyzes.

The one who has reached the end is Danai Gurira, the relentless Michonne. The tenth will be his last season. She says goodbye satisfied, not for the exhibition that The Walking Dead has meant, but for maintaining integrity from beginning to end. "I had already seen the work of veterans before entering the third season and I understood the tone of the series," he explains to this newspaper. "It wasn't about being television stars but telling the story well. Seeing them inspired me to follow in their footsteps."

As for the twists and puns that are coming for this season, the head of the series, Angela Kang , anticipates "an intense period of conflict with the whisperers , a kind of feeling of cold war, much paranoia, propaganda and tension, without be sure who is on which side. There are many fun things to play with this season. "

For Kang, the essence is that the essence is still there, the main reason for the connection with the spectators: "A group of don nadies before the zombie apocalypse now feels important, and I think people connect directly with that concept."

Neither she nor the historic Gale Ann Hurd , another of the executive producers of the series, sees an upcoming finale on the horizon. "It will depend on the spectators," they point almost in chorus. Until death separates them.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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