It’s the start of the end for The Walking Dead — and Final Season stars Khary Payton and Eleanor Matsuura are aware of what occurs in the top-secret series finale. In the two-part premiere of The Walking Dead: The Final Season Trilogy, appearing August 22 on AMC, Ezekiel (Payton) and Yumiko (Matsuura) are detainees of Officer Mercer (series newbie Michael James Shaw) and the armored warriors of a strange new community. Alongside Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and their new friend Princess (Paola Lázaro), Ezekiel and Yumiko will make a world-changing discovery setting up the endgame of The Walking Dead.
Speaking to ComicBook’s Brandon Davis in front of The Walking Dead’s Season 11 presentation at San Diego Comic-Con@Home on Saturday, Payton and Matsuura uncovered showrunner Angela Kang unveiled how the series will reach a conclusion in 2022:
“You know what? You know what? Normally, I would say, ‘You know what? How dare you ask that question, Brandon. Screw you and the horse you rode in on.’ Because I was always trying to keep my job,” Payton joked in the virtual interview above. “But now we’re so close to the end. I’m like, ‘You know what? Go. You could kill me. I don’t even care!’ But I will tell you that they did tell me how this winds up and I am so excited for it.”
Payton proceeded: “I love that I have that. I love that I have this secret that I can’t tell.”
Matsuura, who is at the center of a key comic book storyline in Season 11, likewise savors staying quiet about the end to the three-part Final Season broadcasting its 24 episodes through 2022.
“I was going to say the same thing. I’m like, I am going to be the smuggest person you’ve ever [seen]. I’m walking around, I’m like, ‘I know how it ends,'” Matsuura said. “‘I have all the information.’ It’s so fun that you get to revel in it, so let’s have this, guys. I have no qualms with enjoying the fact I know the ending.”
In a different Comic-Con interview with ComicBook, Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan said of the approaching series finale: “I don’t know anything. I really don’t. I have been owed a phone call from Angela for about four months now and she hasn’t called me. So I don’t know.”
Payton and Matsuura next take part in The Walking Dead Season 11 panel at virtual Comic-Con, joining moderator Chris Hardwick (Talking Dead), executive producers Kang and Scott Gimple, and co-stars Norman Reedus, Melissa Mcbride, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Christian Serratos, Josh McDermitt, and Shaw to answer fan questions and debut the full Final Season trailer.