The Walking Dead is an AMC television adaptation from showrunner Angela Kang pulled from the pages of the hit Image comic series by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. The series stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Khary Paton, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Melissa McBride. Season nine returns October 7, 2018.
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING –
DO NOT CONTINUE UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW WHICH CHARACTER(S) ARE LEAVING THE WALKING DEAD DURING SEASON 9.
I don’t remember Game of Thrones, or Sons of Anarchy, or Breaking Bad, or you know – any hit adult drama series so eager to spoil a major character’s impending death but The Walking Dead has been happily spoiling the departure of Rick Grimes aka Andrew Lincoln for MONTHS NOW. AMC has gone so far as to practically embed the spoiler within the show’s title font in every single TV promo as of late, making it practically unavoidable, even for the crowd who still enjoys surprises and not scouring for information on how many episodes the actors have filmed for the upcoming season.
Rick Grimes’ Final Episodes has become the damn tagline for season 9 of The Walking Dead. I understand that most fans have known for months now that Lincoln is leaving the series during the first half of this upcoming season, but what about the fans who don’t give a shit about Comic-Con or you know – still enjoy a good surprise? I don’t agree with how AMC is promoting the series now with such a giant spoiler front and center in their marketing campaign. What that tells me — is that they REALLY NEED fans to stick with the show and that type of marketing wreaks of desperation as the series moves ever closer to catching up with the source material. Rick Grimes is very much still alive in the comic series (so is Carl mind you) but that hasn’t stopped AMC from canning Chandler Riggs (Carl) last season in dramatic/stupid fashion. That being said, Andrew Lincoln asked to depart the series in order to spend more time with his family. It’s been nearly a decade of filming The Walking Dead for the leading man so I understand it and even though it’s yet another huge departure from Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s story, it’s unavoidable when a series drags on for as long as The Walking Dead has.
But that doesn’t mean you have to go and run your marketing on the spoiler. Don’t assume that every single viewer is glued to the internet AMC – some people still like to have fun and my wife is one of them. I’ve had to quickly jump out of YouTube, change the channel at lightning speed when a new promo comes on the TV after Better Call Saul or Fear The Walking Dead – it’s been exhausting trying to keep Rick Grime’s departure a secret still and I doubt that’ll last. For all I know – AMC will put “Rick Grimes’ Final Episodes” in the damn intro to season 9 episode 1 and I’ll want to fucking die. It’s not cool – it’s lazy and it’s not fair to viewers who still enjoy a good shocker.
At least we’ll still have Ryan Hurst coming into The Walking Dead as Beta – a new and terrifying villain that I hope takes out some of the other castmembers who need to leave the show already. That honestly is the only aspect of The Walking Dead that I’ve been excited about so far this year. Everything else has been a letdown and that kills me because I’ve been a fan since the very beginning. DON’T SPOIL YOUR SHOW BEFORE IT HAS A CHANCE TO LET THE STORY RUN ITS COURSE AMC. DICK. MOVE.
PS: The new promo below is just a minor recut of the SDCC trailer but this time someone remembered to turn up the damn volume on the Whisperers’ “Where are they?” to conclude the damn thing – along with the spoiler being shoved into our eyeballs.