Almost a year since they were first scheduled to come out, the last few episodes of the 10th season of The Walking Dead are now being released weekly.
And as we continue our adventures with the motley group of survivors in a world overrun by zombies, it's bizarre to think how differently the world looked when the season began in 2019.
For one thing, the word ‘pandemic’ did not bring to mind face masks, hand sanitisers and nasal swabs. Instead, we were more likely to imagine a reality as visualised by the hit post-apocalyptic series – a world filled with ravenous zombies.
Showrunner and writer Angela Kang says there was a striking similarity between the series and how the world looked at the start of the pandemic.
"When the pandemic was unfolding, we were seeing images from around the world and people kept saying how they looked like they were from The Walking Dead. We were looking at those images, going like 'wow, it actually does kind of look like the show', it was so strange," she tells The National.
Kang says that the show, airing regionally on Fox HD every Monday until Sunday, April 4, has come to take on a new meaning in the post-pandemic era.
"We've all been thinking about survival and the emotional things that can happen between people as a result of this kind of trauma," Kang says. She adds that the pandemic has also given the show's creative team insight into how people react in times of collective distress.
The show is telling a story of survival and of people who are trying to find hope and a way to make the world better for themselves and the next generation, Kang says. These are sentiments many can relate to today.
This season of The Walking Dead sees the return of one of the show's most beloved characters: Maggie Greene, played by British-American actress Lauren Cohan. Cohan was last seen on the show in 2019, but left to star in the crime comedy drama series Whiskey Cavalier.
"We've always intended for Maggie to come back," Kang says. "It was just a matter of figuring out what those exact terms were. We've been in touch the entire time she's been gone."
As a way of adapting to production limitations brought on by the pandemic, the creative team resorted to shooting the show with a smaller number of people, something that Cohan says “ended up being a good turn creatively” and contributed to a stronger focus on character reveals.
The time away from Maggie, and then being able to return to the character, had its advantages, she says, as it made her think about all the ways she has evolved.
“Maggie has changed so much over that time. It was fun for me. The character never leaves you,” she says. “You’re always sort of mulling things from their perspective.”
While Covid-19 obviously changed a lot of the team's immediate plans, Kang says they will get back to producing bigger episodes. "We first had to figure out how we'd do this in a safe way while telling a satisfying story."
But as much as Kang sees The Walking Dead's projected plot already taking place in real life, she says the writing team is also still reflecting on global events, which will surely trickle into the creative process.
“As people are grappling with issues of race and class, family going against family, country members against themselves, a lot of the social fabric of what’s been going on globally and in our country [the United States] has certainly been weighing on us. There’s just this really interesting dovetail with the story we’ve been working on," she says.
“In that way, art and life are in a cycle together and each informs the other. There are direct and indirect ways in which we are reflecting everything happening in the world.”
Following the 10th season, the show will air its 11th and final season in the summer, concluding in 2022.
Kang says she still hasn't processed the show is coming to an end, mostly because she and the rest of the creative team are still in the thick of the final season.
“We still have so many more episodes to make. We’re still in the middle of that process, we’re still figuring out the story," she says. "I know the emotion is going to come and the looking back on it is going to come. I will always miss this show. It’s been such a key part of my life and career. It’s going to be really bittersweet.”