The Walking Dead Season 11 Part 3 Release Date and What to Expect in the Finale

This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead.

It’s possible fans thought this day would never arrive for AMC’s long-running zombie drama, but as the series has shown plenty of times throughout its 12-year run of gruesome deaths, all things come to an end. With 16 of the 24 episodes of The Walking Dead Season 11 now out, only eight episodes remain to wrap up this post-apocalyptic epic.

The Walking Dead certainly saved its biggest arc for last. The first two parts of Season 11 have seen Daryl, Maggie, Carol, and the rest of our beloved heroes take on the Commonwealth, a massive, technologically advanced and well-armed settlement that seeks to preserve civilization as it was before the outbreak. But the survivors who’ve experienced countless horrors over the last 11 seasons know that there’s really no going back to the old way doing things and that the class-based prosperity the Commonwealth offers its largely sheltered citizens is just a facade.

The first 16 episodes of the season slowly lifted the veil on what’s really going on at the new settlement, where inequality is embraced as a necessary evil needed to bring back the old world. Even after the Commonwealth sends aid to a dilapidated Alexandria and its starving settlers, Daryl, Maggie, and the rest have a hard time accepting their benefactors’ bureaucratic way of doing things (although Daryl does inexplicably become a Commonwealth cop who holds doors for rich people in one of the season’s more questionable character arcs).

But by the end of Part 2, the Commonwealth has taken Alexandria, the Hilltop, and Oceanside by force, with signs of much more trouble ahead for our heroes in the final eight episodes of the series. Here’s what we know about The Walking Dead Season 11 Part 3:

The Walking Dead Season 11 Part 3 Release Date

AMC has yet to set a date for The Walking Dead Season 11 Part 3. Fortunately, we can make some educated guesses as to when we’ll get the final episodes of the series.

Episodes of The Walking Dead usually air at the tail end of winter (Feb/March) and fall (Sept/Oct) of each year, with a hiatus in the summer months to break up the end of one season and the premiere of another. While Part 3 isn’t technically the start of a new season, it could still end up premiering in the show’s usual October slot.

That said, AMC released Season 11 Part 1 in August last year, so it’s possible Part 3 could follow suit and run from August to mid-October. We’ll of course update this article when the official date is announced.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Part 3 Plot

Without delving too deeply into individual character arcs, we know that the final eight episodes of The Walking Dead will need to accomplish two big things: 1) conclude the Commonwealth arc that began in Season 10 as well as wrap up the series as whole, and 2) set up the future of the TWD universe, which will continue well beyond the end of the flagship series (we’ll get into that in a second).

As far as number one goes, showrunner Angela Kang and her writers room have a detailed road map for how to handle the last part of the show’s Commonwealth storyline, thanks to the source material. The comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Charlie Adlard also ends at the Commonwealth, with a final run of issues that offer both closure as well as a big helping of tragedy (if you’ve read the comics, you know what we mean). Of course, there’s no way the show can fully recreate the comic’s ending due to the absence of one of the arc’s key characters: Rick Grimes. Without Sheriff Rick, you can’t really deliver the comic’s heartbreaking ending onscreen. So expect some more detours from the source material when it comes to the series finale. We took a more spoiler-y deep dive into the Commonwealth arc and how the show could (and should) end here.

But what about what comes after the Commonwealth? While The Walking Dead comic was able to offer up a definitive ending for the adventures of Rick Grimes and his band of survivors, the TV series will do no such thing. Season 11 will have to plant the seeds for what the TWD universe will look like for the next few years. AMC already has several spinoff series that will continue the stories of several of the flagship’s main characters after The Walking Dead finale (scroll down)…

The Walking Dead Shows to Watch Next

AMC will not only release two spinoffs and a movie tie-in that will expand The Walking Dead beyond the Season 11 finale but also an anthology series that brings back other characters from throughout the show’s history. Here’s a quick rundown of The Walking Dead shows you have to look forward to after the series finale.

Daryl in Europe Spinoff

This Walking Dead spinoff was announced at the same time as the final season of the flagship series. Norman Reedus told Den of Geek that this spinoff would see Daryl and Carol roaming the wasteland in what sounds like a more “monster-of-the-week” format than fans are used to. AMC recently confirmed that the show will take place in Europe, but will unfortunately no longer feature Melissa McBride due to logistical issues.

Isle of the Dead (Maggie and Negan Spinoff)

Unlikely allies Maggie and Negan will leave Virginia behind for the Big Apple in this spinoff that will see the duo exploring post-apocalyptic New York City.

The Rick Grimes Movie

Is this movie ever coming out? Who knows! Still in development, this Walking Dead movie will continue Rick’s story after the events of Season 9.

Tales of the Walking Dead

Even The Walking Dead is getting its own six-episode anthology series, which will explore a different cast and situation in each new installment. The show is also poised to feature some familiar faces. Expect to see Samantha Morton back as Alpha, alongside a star-studded cast that includes Olivia Munn, Terry Crews, and Poppy Liu.

Fear the Walking Dead

If you just want more Walking Dead any way you can get it, you could check out The Walking Dead‘s original “companion series,” which follows a whole other ensemble cast learning to survive in another part of the country.