According to The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, the current comic series could inspire at least five more seasons of the show.
Warning: Some minor spoilers about the current state of The Walking Dead comic book series.
While it’s no secret that The Walking Dead has become one of the most successful tentpoles in recent years, with not only its still-thriving 13+ year-running Image Comics series, the ratings-dominant AMC cable drama, its spinoff series and loads of merchandise, the question of how long the gravy train will last is a reasonable one to ask. While creator Robert Kirkman is typically vague when answering that question, he may have recently telegraphed a timeline.
The recent controversial Season 6-7 cliffhanger event introducing Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s live-action version of The Walking Dead’s barbed-wire-bat-brandishing obscenity-alliteration aficionado Negan was not only a major turning point in terms of the show’s plot, but marked a crucial waypoint in terms of its progress in adapting Kirkman’s 2003-present comic book series, rounding material culled from Issue #100, which bore a publishing date of July 11, 2012.
Thus, while the show’s progress could, in a dynamic similar to Game of Thrones, eventually overtake the published source material, Kirkman took to the Letter Hacks section in the latest issue of the comic to put things into proper perspective regarding how much material the show could conceivably cover, stating (via ComicBook):
"It took us 6 seasons to get to 100. It won’t take us 6 years to get to 200 and that will take us to season … TWELVE. And we’ll still be ahead of the show at that point."
Contextually, the comic book series – bearing developments that would seem surreal to those only acquainted with the show – is currently on Issue #161 (Dec. 7, 2016). The show’s December 11 Season 7 midseason finale “Hearts Still Beating” covered comic book material published in Issue #111 (Jun. 12, 2013). While on the series, it’s still relatively early in the Negan/Saviors storyline and its eventual evolution into “All Out War,” the comic series is obviously quite far removed from those events. In fact, after the “All Out War” concluded, the story jumped forward in time two years in Issue #127 (May 14, 2014), with Rick Grimes and the Alexandria denizens enjoying an idyllic existence until a new threat emerges from a creepy, stealthy group who wear walker skin masks called the Whisperers; a storyline that is still playing out.
While Kirkman isn’t declaring with certainty that, ratings dip drama aside, The Walking Dead will make it as far as Season 12 in the 2021-2022 television season, his comic book series is not going anywhere anytime soon. Thus, if TWD were to have the kind of television longevity on AMC that, for example, Supernatural enjoys on The CW, the comic series – even at the slower rate it unravels – would still conceivably be ahead of the show at that point, supplying more material to adapt. However, Kirkman has stated that he did conceive a proper ending for his zombie mythology that only he knows. Yet, he has also stated that should the comic/show dynamic arrive at a Game of Thrones-like impasse, that he would create a unique ending for the show, while keeping the comics flowing.
The Walking Dead will resume Season 7 on AMC on February 12.