Next on The Walking Dead – Season 6 . . . and 7 and 8

As you’re hopefully aware, The Walking Dead, like cultural counterpart Game of Thrones, spawned from separate-but-equal source material, in this case an ongoing comic series by Robert Kirkman. I wrote an article back when Season 5 concluded in March of this year comparing those shows’ cliffs whence they will run out of source material (Thrones just leapt over that cliff while Dead fans need not worry for some time, if at all).

Scott M. Gimple, current showrunner who took over in Season 4, is a master of honoring-yet-remixing the comic with Kirkman’s blessing/input. Due to the nature of the adaptation, many things get expanded upon, characters survive and die at different points etc. But Gimple has remained trained on the goalposts of Kirkman’s story and from there, we can paint a fairly accurate picture of the next few years of The Walking Dead TV show (check back each Monday for my reviews of new episodes).

Here is a list of the current and future seasons and the volumes of issues they adapt (each volume contains six issues).

S6	2010-11	Vol. 14: No Way Out
	2011	Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves
	2011-12	Vol. 16: A Larger World
	2012	Vol. 17: Something to Fear
S7	2012-13	Vol. 18: What Comes After
	2013	Vol. 19: March to War
	2013-14	Vol. 20: All Out War – Part 1
	2014	Vol. 21: All Out War – Part 2
S8	2014	Vol. 22: A New Beginning
	2014-15	Vol. 23: Whispers Into Screams
	2015	Vol. 24: Life and Death
	2015-16	Vol. 25: ????

As you can see, Gimple adapts roughly four volumes a season, two per eight episodes. He’s often said the show is one the reinvents every eight episodes and this chart explains how.

Season 6 (2015-2016): 

S6	2010-11	Vol. 14: No Way Out
	2011	Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves
	2011-12	Vol. 16: A Larger World
	2012	Vol. 17: Something to Fear

We’re three episodes into this season and Gimple has already provided remixed versions of the comic’s zombie herd attack, the Scavengers (a.k.a. the Wolves) and, most notably, the character of Morgan (Lennie James).

Going forward, Episode 4 will be Morgan’s big flashback episode while 5, 6, 7, and 8 will see the herd attack and breach Alexandria’s walls, culminating in successful counterattack, the deaths of Jessie and Sam and Ron shooting Carl. In the comics, it was Douglas Monroe, the origin of Deanna, who shoots instead and an accident to boot. Unlike her comic counterpart, I predict Deanna will survive here.

Vols. 16 and 17 begin a medieval era on The Walking Dead as a feudal society emerges. Tom Payne and Xander Berkeley will be Paul “Jesus” Monroe and Gregory respectively, leaders at Hilltop beginning in 6B (to start airing February 2016) while the casting search is on for “Orin” for the season six finale.

30s to mid 40s. A physically imposing, charismatic, brutal, smart, ferocious, frightening, hilarious, inappropriate, oddly friendly, fun loving sociopath that is both a leader of men and a killer of men. He has both a practical and emotional intelligence, he’s a brilliant strategist, he’s pure, dangerous, murderous, often gleeful id, that still has both discipline and a code. And he has a temper that can vaporize people. He’s truly one of the strongest personalities ever…

Three guesses for who that is . . .

.

.

.

NEGAN.

Season 7 (2016-2017):

S7	2012-13	Vol. 18: What Comes After
	2013	Vol. 19: March to War
	2013-14	Vol. 20: All Out War – Part 1
	2014	Vol. 21: All Out War – Part 2

Effectively the year of Negan, it also introduces Ezekiel and the Kingdom, as well as Dwight if he’s not present in Season 6. The first half, 7A, will detail Alexandria and Hilltop under the heel of the Saviors while Rick plots rebellion which of course blows up in his face and ignites all-out war, chronicled in 7B.

Season 8 (2017-2018):

S8	2014	Vol. 22: A New Beginning
	2014-15	Vol. 23: Whispers Into Screams
	2015	Vol. 24: Life and Death
	2015-16	Vol. 25: ????

Picks up after a two-year time jump. Alexandria and Hilltop have established further relationships with communities and live in relative peace until the incursion of the Whisperers, survivalists in walker skins with a civilization-is-the-enemy mindset similar to the show’s recent Wolves. As you tell from the graph, this is as far as Kirkman’s gone in the story but however Vol. 25 ends, it will not be the end. The only thing that can stop the walking dead is to destroy the brain and this one’s still got ideas to spare.