‘The Walking Dead’ Creator Robert Kirkman Reveals An Alternative Ending To The Comics

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the popular comic book series, The Walking Dead, came to a surprise ending with the latest issue. However, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has since revealed another way in which the comic series could have ended.

With the publication of issue 193 of The Walking Dead comics, fans got a shock to discover it was also the very last issue. Kirkman addressed the surprise completion of the zombie apocalypse series by stating that everything had “felt like an unnecessary detour” when blocking out new content for the series. As a result of this, he made the decision to conclude it rather than creating content just for the sake of it, according to People.

“The harder I tried to come up with new places to go, the clearer it was to me that this is what this story needed … it needed to end.”

It was also a decision that Kirkman has sat on since 2015. In fact, the secret was kept so lowkey that Kirkman even had covers commissioned for issues that he knew would not be written in an effort to surprise Walking Dead readers.

*SPOILERS AHEAD* Here's the official scoop on THE WALKING DEAD #193—head over to your local comic shop & snag your copy first! @RobertKirkman @CharlieAdlard @skybound https://t.co/Hv5avn4Tpp

— Image Comics (@ImageComics) July 3, 2019

However, according to Digital Spy, the Walking Dead comics could have ended a lot earlier if Robert Kirkman had stuck to a concept that he developed in 2011.

This conclusion would have seen the comic book series end at some point around issue 84, which was also the conclusion of the “No Way Out” volume.

Fans of the comics might remember something about this potential ending as Robert Kirkman wrote about it in issue 123 of The Walking Dead.

“For years, that had planned to be the end. Rick would make his proclamation, and the speech would end with a big close-up on Rick’s face, you’d turn the page, and Rick’s face would be the same, only it was a statue. And you’d zoom out and see the full statue with some vines growing on the bottom of it… cracks forming… and you’d realize that it was quite OLD.”

While this concept sounds like quite a dramatic way to end the series, Kirkman expanded on this concept to explain that while Rick had made a wonderful speech, one so great that the people around him had built a monument to him, it was actually the dead who won in the end.

Kirkman explains further that the storyline would then reveal that not only was the statue of Rick Grimes old and dilapidated but so was Alexandria. Further panels would reveal a crumbling Alexandria and walkers, indicating that the world that Rick had created had also finally succumbed to the undead.

Kirkman further describes this alternative ending as “embarrassingly bad.”

And, as Digital Spy points out, readers would have also missed out on some iconic moments from The Walking Dead such as the creation of Negan’s storyline, the Whisperers, and the Commonwealth. The last of which is potentially being set up to appear in the next season of AMC’s The Walking Dead TV series.