“We have received threats from the fans”: the person in charge of 'The Walking Dead' talks about the road to its end

There was a time when

was a true audience phenomenon.

Between 2014 and 2016 it was the most watched series in the United States among adult audiences, even ahead of productions broadcast on free-to-air television.

With its eleventh and final season on air (this Monday Fox premieres the second of the three batches of episodes into which this final installment is divided), this phenomenon has become a thing of the past, but it continues to draw an important mass of fans and still is profitable enough that its universe, which also includes

and

, will grow with a series starring Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride), another titled

and three movies with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) as the lead.

Because zombies, as is known, resist dying.

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The woman behind the success of the 'The Walking Dead' saga

At the moment, what occupies this franchise derived from the comics created by Robert Kirkman is the end of the mother series.

The maximum responsible for

come to a good (or bad) port in his television career will be the screenwriter Angela Kang (Irvine, California, 45 years old), responsible for the series since the ninth season and one of its writers since the second.

For the team, facing the outcome of a series that has been on the air for 12 years involves a wide range of feelings, from sadness to relief that they do not hide.

“We have been working through the pandemic, with unique challenges and a lot of changes.

It has been exhausting.

But we are very fond of this series and there is a great sadness to think that it is almost over.

Especially for those of us who have been in it for a long time, there are a lot of emotions attached to the series.

Several of us have had children who have grown up in this time, I gave birth in the third season, for example, ”she says in a video call interview with EL PAÍS.

Norman Reedus and Angela Kang, at a moment of the filming of the ninth season of 'The Walking Dead'. Gene Page/AMC

But before that, a penultimate batch of episodes arrives that will lead the protagonists to mingle with a new community, the Commonwealth, which will introduce new characters and show a new organization in which Daryl and his gang will try to fit in.

“The apocalypse left everyone on the same level, and now they're going to be in a situation where they have to go back to a version of who they were a decade ago.

It is a very jarring transition for many of them”, explains the screenwriter about this new plot.

To the usual emotions linked to the end of a series, we must add on this occasion the fan factor and the impossibility of satisfying all viewers.

Kang knows firsthand the limits to which enthusiastic fans of

“We are very grateful to our fans, even if they sometimes get upset over creative decisions.

Indifference would be worse.

But sometimes it can be tricky.

Some of us have suffered threats, some actors and myself have seen our privacy invaded by some followers, and it's scary.

But if it's just that they have strong opinions about where the story should go, I'm glad they're so involved.

We don't want to disappoint you, but at the same time, people have different opinions, which also change over time.

If we had listened to the fans in season two, we would have had to kill off Carol, but we didn't and she became one of her most beloved characters.

We always try to make the best decisions for the story.

Sometimes they are aligned with the fans and sometimes they are not.

Melissa McBride, in the new episodes of 'The Walking Dead'. Josh Stringer/AMC

If the pressure of taking the controls of

was not enough, now adds that of being responsible for finishing the series.

“I feel the pressure from the fans, yes, and also from the studio and from the network, because it is a very important series for them.

But probably no pressure is worse than what I put on myself to try to do well.

I try to keep perspective because, not to mention anyone, there are things from a different franchise, in particular one thing, that a lot of fans hated and I loved.

It's very subjective and you're never going to satisfy people 100%,” Kang says, perhaps recalling how fans of another great global phenomenon,

, turned against the writers in its final season.

The Walking Dead

has changed a lot throughout its 11 seasons.

It started out as the story of a man who wakes up in a hospital bed to discover that the zombie apocalypse has broken out outside his room.

Later came other groups of survivors and various experiences that exemplified over and over again that man is a wolf to man and that the worst enemy of the living was not the half-dead, but the other living.

“That's really always been the underlying theme of this show, how humans can be the monsters.

Each season has had a different flavor.

For example, this block of chapters has the aspect of a

and touches of

, in addition to the usual horror and action”, details Kang.

Lauren Cohan, in the 11th season of 'The Walking Dead'. Josh Stringer/AMC

And all, with the guidance of Robert Kirkman's comics as a backdrop, although series and comics have been separated in many cases.

“Robert has been very generous with us and encouraged us to take what's great in comics but also find our own spins.

I think it's important to him that the series also surprise people, like the comic did.

It's great to work with an author who isn't obsessed with following the comic book to the letter.

But sometimes he has called asking 'please, make sure you do this like in the comic'.

Kang gives a concrete example of a moment that Kirkman asked him to respect: the death of Alpha (Samantha Morton) at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

“I think I had never told this… Whenever there is a death of a relevant character in the series, we talk about whether we want to do it the same as in the comic or if we want to introduce a twist.

I wanted to finish at the same point, but to get there by another way.

Kirkman listened to him and told me that it would be better to do it like in the comics because the fans had been waiting for that particular moment.

I thought his explanation was fine and we respect it”.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, in the 11th season of the series. Josh Stringer/AMC

Kang combines these months his work on

with the development of the spin-off series that will star Daryl and Carol, for which he will also be ultimately responsible.

“Working on this series is different than when you do it with some new characters, because there is a lot of history behind them.

I can't go into the details, but I think the bottom line is to figure out how to differentiate the feeling behind each series so that even though you get to know these characters in a very deep way, you feel like you can still discover new things about them." concludes.

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