“The Walking Dead” Season 9 finale ended earlier in March with an ominous and intriguing cliffhanger, as AMC’s hit series has often done in the past. News of the upcoming season has been eagerly awaited by fans, particularly with the ongoing “Fear The Walking Dead” Season 5 running tangent with the flagship series’ storyline. Theories have once again sprang out, particularly after “The Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman finally ended the long-running comic book series.

Last week, the latest and last episode of the hit serial comic book series “The Walking Dead” had been released. The series ended surprisingly and without any warning, which admittedly was Kirkman’s intention all along. In the final pages of issue #193 of “The Walking Dead,” the American comic book writer finally announced that it was “the end of The Walking Dead.”

Although avid fans of both the television and comic book series would be disappointed by the abrupt revelation, it had also been revealed that the series’ original ending was supposed to be set way back in the “No Way Out” story arc. The ending supposedly has Rick’s team go through the whole Alexandria arc but shows the distant future after Rick has made the civilization he had always dreamed of. However, it would be revealed that the life he had wanted was not sustainable, showing Alexandria empty of life and zombie infested.

“For years, that had planned to be the end,” Kirkman admitted. “In the end, the dead won, society crumbled again, this time seemingly for good … and that was it,” he added.

All hope is not lost, however, as the television series’ storyline has diverted from that of the comics multiple times and promises to do so again. Throughout the past year, AMC has been teasing of future installments to the series, possibly hinting at diverging completely from the comic itself.

With Carl’s death, Rick’s disappearance from the show and the most recent integration of the helicopter group, the road to the end of AMC’s television series is yet to be over. The addition of the helicopter group provides a laudable thumbs up to the writers of “The Walking Dead” scriptwriters as this has been revealed to be completely away from the comic book setting. What might shed light to the future of the television series lies with the writer’s final note: Negan lives.

With Negan left alive even at the end of the series, it provides a ton of possibilities to continue the series, this time with Negan in the front line. In the show, the bat-wielding anti-hero has shown a sincere change of heart, possibly hinting to his future role as the front liner of the series. It has already been previously theorized that Negan might take a completely different route and leave Alexandria with Michonne, possibly hinting for future adventures for the former Sanctuary leader.

This remains all speculation as no specifics for the future of the series has been released. “The Walking Dead” Season 10 premeire is expected to be released in October this year.

The Walking Dead
While a bloodbath has been teased even before "The Walking Dead" Season 9 premiered, nothing prepared fans for the shocking deaths in Episode 15, "The Calm Before." Gene Page/AMC

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