The Walking Dead showrunner talks about Season 11

The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang talks about Season 11, teasing that Leah’s storyline may not be wrapped up soon.

“Find Me” episode of The Walking Dead showed us what happened to Daryl while searching for Rick. That was the emotional connection between him and Leah, who was dealing with her own loss in a cabin. That story ended with Daryl leaving a note for Leah, saying that “I belong with you. Find me.”.

Fans are curious about whether we will get to see Leah again. Norman Reedus, the actor who plays Daryl, earlier teased that the story could follow, and mentioned that interaction was not “what it looked like to be”. And now, the showrunner of The Walking Dead teased there may be more to come with Leah’s story. Angela Kang said “I hope that where the story eventually goes proves interesting and surprising,” to EW. To whether we’ll see Leah either as alive or dead again, The Walking Dead showrunner Kang said told fans to watch season 11, not spoiling anything.

The Walking Dead showrunner interview on Season 11

Here’s what the showrunner of The Walking Dead said about the next episodes.

When asked about whether the note Daryl left for Leah meant that Daryl found his post-apocalyptic love, Kang responded by mentioning the series told that story through a subjective lens.

“I would say there was a very particular period of time, where things were pretty dark for both Daryl and this character, Leah. And I would just say that when things are intense and knowing that Daryl has not been in a lot of relationships, I think that there’s a particular intensity. There’s also this element of that it’s sort of a subjective memory that we’re getting to experience this through. We don’t tell the story through an objective lens. So I think he felt like he was broken by the fact that she just disappeared without a trace, and he hoped that they would find each other. But I can’t say that any of it is objectively his true love in the apocalypse.”

When asked about the catalyst for their decision to go back and show what Daryl was doing, while out looking for Rick, Kang revealed that such an episode was always in the plans. Those extra episodes were just the perfect opportunity, it seems.

“So here’s what I’ll say: This episode is one that we were always planning as part of season 11. Not in this exact form, but we were always planning a version of this story for season 11, the flashback. And so, people can take from that what they will. I think the way that we structured it for these, some things changed obviously, because of the restrictions that we had to work under. There are some things that we probably would have built out a little bit more and a little bit differently. So there’s that kind of change, due to the time in which we were filming it, but there is some significance to this past story or future story.

And so, there’s just this weird blank where Daryl was the mountain man out there. And so, we’ve always kind of wanted to explore at some point, what was Daryl’s state when he was out there and how connected was he to his group? What happened? Where did the dog come from? And so, those were all things that we’d planned to tell a story about. And then there are twists to come, with the fallout from this. But yeah, it’s something that we were always interested in exploring.”

Asked simply whether we will be able to see Leah in the next episodes either dead or alive, Kang expectedly chose not to give an exact answer for that.

“I’ll just say to watch season 11 as that comes along.”

Talking about the six extra episodes, Kang mentioned what’s coming next:

“What’s coming up next is we’ve got this really classic, on the road, survival story, starring Aaron and Gabriel, and the amazing Robert Patrick, who’s our guest star. And I really love this episode. It’s kind of getting into just the basics of finding food, and how do you survive when everything’s kind of a mess?”

She then went on to talk about another episode.

“And then we’ve got an episode that deals with the group that found themselves surrounded by a bunch of troopers in white armor in episode 1016. So that’s our Eugene and Yumiko and Princess and Ezekiel group. It’s more Princess focused, but everybody kind of takes a part in this. And they’re trying to figure out what’s the deal with these people, as they are being questioned for what they’re doing there. It’s just high tension and high stakes for them.”

Kang also mentioned a different, lighter episode about Daryl and Carol:

“We then have an episode with Daryl and Carol dealing with kind of the fallout from this conversation and their own ways, and it’s sort of a lighter episode for us, in some ways, while still dealing with some of the emotions that they’re going through. And then there’s “Here’s Negan,” which is fantastic with Jeffrey Dean Morgan getting to take center stage as Negan.”