Summary

Today , The Walking Deadis a cultural Jagganath , with multiple household - name idiot box adjustment and a program library of games set in the world overrun by Walkers . It ’s therefore surprising to look back at the serial publication and ascertain how many of its most iconic moments were almost completely different . From the very start to the authoritative ending , Walking Deadwent through some major changesin the planning phase that transformed the tale . However , one idea wasneverconsidered , and author Robert Kirkman really seems a lilliputian offended that fans ever thought it was in controversy .

While Kirkman sometimes used the letters Sir Frederick Handley Page to mislead lover , build up plan twists by making them seem less potential , we now recognize that the ending never came close to making the entire zombie apocalypse Rick ’s comatoseness dream . However , the franchisedidalmost end in a very different way .

Walker are well known to be a huge menace in the Walking Dead cosmos , but the serial ' destruction award a young problem that could destruct what ’s left .

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Walking Deadwas never a comatoseness dream , but itwasoriginally planned to terminate with a devastating departure for Rick ’s survivors .

Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman Never Considered the ‘Rick’s Coma Dream’ Ending

The Walking Dead Creator Seems Offended by the Suggestion

At the scratch line ofThe Walking Dead , Rick Grimes is shotwhile working as a small townspeople sheriff ’s lieutenant . He wakes up a few weeks later to discover the world has pass to hell . 1000000000000 of multitude have die , and the existence is now well over by the scuffle undead . Over the course of the comic ’s 193 issues , Rick acclimatise to this brutal fresh human beings , go a mathematical group of survivors through a serial publication of horrific experience and finally playing a polar role in re - establishing human civilization , this time on a far more equal footing .

The net issue of the series is aflashforward to an adult Carl in the future , raising his daughter in a world where zombies are no longer an everyday concern ( though some are still out there.)Rick dies in issue # 192 , shot down by the inner Sebastian Milton , who resent his family ’s red ink of business leader after Rick managed to break their hold over the Commonwealth . His decease recall the first upshot , as he ’s gunned down only to jump again - this sentence as a zombi which is finally put to rest by Carl .

The Walking Dead is a dystopian world where the undead horde roam free , with the initial eruption having wipe out way more citizenry than fans might opine .

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Throughout the serial , some fan contemplate that the ending would finally discover thatRick had never waken up from his comaand that the undead apocalypse was his mind ’s way of process his situation . The concept observe leverage in several aspects of the enfranchisement - specially the estimation that the zombies were a metaphor for Rick ’s own approaching death , turning his fight for selection into a metaphor for his attempt to recover and come back to the material world .

The mind was far from impossible - repugnance properties likeThe DescentandGhost Storieshave put their own plait on this mind - however Kirkman makes it very readable he never reckon erasing allThe Walking Dead ’s character growth and humans - changing effect by have Rick simply wake up . However , that disappointing ending might have been preferable to hisoriginalplan …

Robert Kirkman revealed that iconic Walking stagnant persona Negan almost had a unlike backstory , connect into scrapped plan for an earlier villain .

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Kirkman told his original ending to Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln and executive producer Greg Nicotero , who"were nice enough to pretend it was cool . "

Kirkman Intended Walking Dead to Have a Much Different Ending

The Series Almost Ended with the Zombies Wiping Out Humanity

InThe walk Dead Deluxe # 84 , Kirkman revealed that he initiallyplanned for an implausibly bleak ending . The last yield would have come as a surprisal ( something whichwaseventually the caseful ) , and would have ended with Rick giving a rousing speech to the survivor . The moment would then have cut to the future , where Rick would be depicted in the same pose as a gigantic statue , suggest that not only did the survivors come through the day , but they reestablished society for long enough to remember Rick as a folks hero .

However , a zombie would then have stumbled past the statue , with a further zoom - out to show a barren , post - apocalyptic society where only the zombie stay , suggest that humanity still lost in the end . Kirkman explains,“So , we ’d leave readers with the idea that no matter what the great unwashed did … the snake god win . I do it , right ? "

Walking Dead ’s Godhead Robert Kirkman name a surprising movie the respectable economic consumption of fast zombies - and it ’s not the one fan will expect .

Live action version of Rick Grimes, close-up (left) and waking from his coma (right.)

It ’s a sedative end , and had the potential to leave fans feel vastly chouse , cave in how much they ’d place in all the eccentric and their journeying . Indeed , Kirkman noted that his originally plan endingwas"bleak , lamentable … possibly terrible . “The only affair that saved fan from this conclusion was how pliant it was in terms of when Kirkman could deploy it . The aforethought clock time leap meant he could end the narrative whenever he want , only require to put Rick in a state of affairs where he was forced to give a climactic speech during a pitched battle . Kirkman recall thinking,“Eh … I could do that any time . "

Kirkman was trusted enough of this ending to distinguish Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln and the executive manufacturer of theWalking DeadTV adaptation Greg Nicotero , who"were nice enough to pretend it was coolheaded . “However , as he keep press the end back and back , Kirkman eventually begin to feel his planned close would n’t be satisfy . However , if the comic had been less fun to write or other projection had been more demanding of his time , fans really might have gotten the ' zombies win ' ending . In fact , that ’s only one way in which the franchise was almost radically dissimilar .

The Walking Dead has a hugely satisfying end that ties up a lot of loose duds , but one unaddressed threat spells disaster for the survivor .

walking dead’s rick wakes up from his coma

Kirkman to begin with intended to have Shane killing Rick inThe Walking short # 7 , with Carl find the fight and carry the dark closed book of his forefather ’s execution .

Walking Dead’s Final Form Could Have Been So Much Different

Kirkman Almost Killed Rick Instead of Shane

WhileThe Walking Dead Deluxe ’s prominent estimation is to reprint the series in color , any hard-core fan of the serial publication is way more concerned in the pageboy of notes Kirkman includes about how the floor was conceived and changed over metre . So far , fans have watch that there were countless moment in the series that almost changed it for good . For instance , Kirkman earlier intended to have Shane kill RickinThe Walking numb # 7 , with Carl witnessing the engagement and carrying the dark mystery of his beginner ’s murder .

Kirkman also had plans to defeat other major characters- Andrea was in the beginning meant to die inThe walk Dead # 5 , but ended up becoming one of the franchise ’s longest - bleed protagonists , eventually snuff it inThe walk Dead # 167 . Similarly , Kirkman not only designate forMaggie to vote out the villainous Negan , but write the total script for the offspring , with only the input of artist Charlie Adlard changing his mind . or else , Negan does n’t just live but essentially reforms , prove Rick ’s imaginativeness of a merciful human civilisation is potential .

Walking Deadwas primitively plan as part of a sci - fi trilogy , with Kirkman imagining the same characters dealing with unlike scenarios in alternate reality . However , whenThe Walking Deadtook off beyond late expectations , these plans fell by the wayside .

The Walking Dead Nuclear Problem

The Walking Dead ’s snake god are dangerous enemy , but humans face a bigger threat in the post - Revelation of Saint John the Divine - and it ’s not each other !

Other characters were also meant to die far sooner , but there were also intriguing additions that came tight to being implemented . Former Alexandria house physician Alexander Davidson was meant to return to the series as a major scoundrel , Rick was going to attach a hammerto his branch after lose his bridge player , andEugene Porter was move to start experimenting on zombies , building on his find of an unusually debile Walker inWalking Dead # 55 . For various reason , none of these idea made it into the comics , and yet it ’s still distribute to know how differentThe walk Deadcould have become at any of these moment .

Despite All the Odds, Walking Dead Got a Great Ending

Kirkman Avoided a Lot of Hurdles to Give His Story a Satisfying Resolution

Ultimately , The Walking Deadgot the satisfying terminate it merit - a bittersweet reflexion of its themes , as humanity rise once again thanks to Rick ’s leadership and heroism , having learnedimportant lessons from the zombi spirit plague(which is now screw as ' the Trials . ' ) In the final issue , fans get to see where all their pet characters ended up , as well as see the goal and tensions that set the now - ascendent man . This final success is very unlike from Kirkman ’s original design to time - jump to a zombi triumph , howeverWalking Deadfans can breathe assured that it wasneverhis plan to end the franchise with Rick simply sit up in seam .

AMC’s Rick Grimes surrounded by a ring of hungry zombies

Three blended images of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan in The Walking Dead

Walking dead’s final image: an older Carl tells his daughter his father Rick Grimes' story.