New York (AFP)

The tenth season of "The Walking Dead" ends Sunday, at the end of an eventful course of 19 months marked by the pandemic which changed the course of the series, before the grand finale of season 11.

A little over ten years after its debut, the adaptation of the comic book of the same name has yet to reveal all its secrets and if the hero Rick Grimes is missing, Daryl, Carol and Michonne are still battling zombies.

If it is far from the audiences of its heyday, "TWD" retains a core of fans and remains the most watched series on American cable, excluding optional channels such as HBO.

"It is more relevant than ever with the pandemic", argues to AFP Paola Lazaro, newcomer this season in the role of Juanita Sanchez, alias Princess.

The series "teaches us how to rebuild a society after everything has been knocked down".

"The Walking Dead" features the adventures of the few people who survived a disaster triggered by a virus transforming the dead into zombies hungry for human flesh, themselves contagious.

The pandemic weighed on the shooting, interrupted for many months before resuming for six episodes produced under health constraints.

Fewer characters on the screen, more two-person or single-person scenes, "I see a side that is close to the theater", explains Paola Lazaro, who is also a playwright and was featured in one of these episodes .

"We explore far into the characters and there are monologues. (...) It was a treat for me."

Just like in the last episode of season 10 with the disturbing Negan, "The Walking Dead", also distils additional biographical elements on the main characters.

Will Princess be in season 11, expected later this year and which will run until 2022?

"I don't know", assures Paola Lazaro.

In a series that does not hesitate to remove key characters, certainties are rare.

"I'm going word after word, moment after moment."

Even after 2022, the zombies will remain in the vicinity, with a "spin-off" (series derived from the original) centered on the characters of Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier, expected in 2023. Not to mention the two already on screen , "Fear The Walking Dead" and "The Walking Dead: World Beyond".

“People grew up with this series,” says Paola Lazaro of the fans' attachment, “they fell in love with these characters, who are kind of family now.”

© 2021 AFP