'The Walking Dead' Series Finale: Showrunner Explains Why [Spoiler] Returns, Why [Spoiler] Dies & More

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW!

The Walking Dead is officially over…the original series, that is.

The series finale aired tonight and fans got some answers to their burning questions.

There were some surprises in the final episode and showrunner Scott Gimple opened up about them all in several interviews.

Click inside to read more…
Keep scrolling to see what he said!

On Andrew Lincoln & Danai Gurira returning for the episode: “Andy and Danai and I’ve been working on that story for so long, we knew it inside and out,” Scott shared with Variety. “And we were just choosing the right place within that story, to get to the thematics that we needed to conclude the Walking Dead. What is the point of their circumstances, that shows them needing the strength that they draw from each other. We weren’t vamping. People will learn all about everything they see there. All will be revealed. The story behind the armor that Michonne is wearing is important. What Rick is doing is critical to his story and what he hears from the helicopter. There’s a real world that we got to peek into that people will have to live in several months.”

On the Maggie & Negan spinoff: “’The Walking Dead,’ the original that we’re talking about here, I thought it ended maybe with a lot more hope than what the new show starts with,” star Jeffrey Dean Morgan says. “As far as the two of them. I thought there was like a little understanding there with Maggie and Negan there at the end. And then the way that new show starts, it’s maybe not so much as Negan had hoped for… The new show doesn’t start immediately following what we see happen on Sunday night. A couple of years have passed and when you catch up back to these two characters and yeah, it’s probably not as hopeful as maybe what Negan had hoped when they’re sitting around the campfire, there together.”

On Rosita’s death scene: “Christian Serratos volunteered! I was talking to her about our plans for the finale, and I kinda made a joke about blah, blah, blah deaths — unless people want to volunteer,” Scott told TV Line. “And she was like, ‘Are you open to the idea of maybe Rosita dying at the end?’ Then she laid out a really passionate argument for how she felt that was the right choice for her character’s story, how bravely she would do anything for her child. So she told me to think about it. I did, then I talked to the writers and the network and Scott [M. Gimple, the franchise’s chief content officer] and said, ‘I think we can do a really beautiful version with Christian.’ So it started with her.

On the memory lane end: “Making the show, there really is just this continuum of the people who worked on it over the years. The relationships that were formed, the handing off of the show from one person to others, it turns into this thing. This one long line. And that’s what we decided to put up on the screen. That’s what we decided to put our final argument for The Walking Dead,” Scott said.

There are several spinoffs coming, including one for Rick and Michonne, and Daryl.