The pattern of "Walking Dead" answer our biggest questions: what's next for Rick, where is Maggie and more! (Exclusive)

The dead who walk the answers are here!

After watching the final episode of Rick Grimes' curveball on Sunday night, and hearing the news Andrew Lincoln will be featured in three TWD TV movies, we still had a lot of questions about our favorite drama that kills zombies.

So AND called Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang and asked him our hottest questions for the series: how long have these Walking Dead the movies were part of the plan? Have we seen Maggie's last (Lauren Cohan)? Do walkers evolve? And why not Carl (Chandler Riggs) or Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) in one of Rick's dream sequences?

Read on for all the exclusive scoop …

ET: As a showrunner of The dead who walk this season, how long have you known that the "last episode" of Andrew Lincoln would not be the last time we will see Rick Grimes?

Angela Kang: I knew it for a long time. From the moment I knew we had to write it, I knew that the plan was to transfer it to these other projects, but as this part was not my area, I could not talk about it . Scott Gimple – who wrote these movies and planned the expansion of the universe – sort of said, "Okay, here's what I want to happen: Rick has to go out by flying in a helicopter." He told me the story of the philosophy of these people and, although I do not know everything that was planned for this film, we said to ourselves: "OK, it's a pretty cool story." So we were able to start defining what we needed to make sure the history of the helicopter was back and alive in the world, while hoping to be a little wrong to say how he left the show. So it was a great gift that we knew very early and that's where we were headed.

It was so great to see familiar faces that we had not seen for a while back with Shane (Jon Bernthal), Hershel (Scott Wilson) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) – was he ever question of Chandler Riggs or Sarah Warne Callies come back so we can see Carl and Lori?

AK: In fact, no, and I'll tell you why: it's a reason for history. It's not something we expect from fans, it's just part of our internal logic. We have really begun to delve into this idea of ​​what is called the "third man phenomenon", a phenomenon that often happens to people who are about to die, but who survive. They sometimes believe that they see someone they know or someone they do not know who seems to help them survive. It's as if someone trapped on a mountain in the snow and that a sherpa came from nowhere and swore that this person was driving them to the bottom of the mountain – except that they were not Had never been there. This is the kind of context we used for these hallucinations and dreams. Each of these three characters gives some sort of puzzle piece he needs to keep going: Shane embarrasses him, but pushes him to the brutal courage he needs. Hershel represents, as a vision of heaven – a place to rest his heart. For him, he is a father figure, he tells him gently that he must continue. And as a soldier, Sasha confers a certain wisdom, a strategy and the idea of ​​a broader vision. For us creatively, Lori and Carl were the family he was looking for. It's kind of a final point he wants to achieve, but for a dying man who felt like you're finding Lori and Carl, it means it's time to rest because you've found your home, you're going to die now. We thought that his mind would not allow him to see these two, because what he's trying to do is to continue living for the family he has now, namely, you know, all his friends and Michonne. He must save them, he can not stop – and if he were to see Laurie and Carl, he would stop. That's what we thought creatively about why he does not see Carl, but he hears Lori's voice for a moment.

Michonne (Danai Gurira) and the rest of the group think Rick died as a result of this blast. How will this affect the upcoming group?

AK: You know it's an important part of the story to come, and I think what I'm passionate about is giving us the opportunity to tell the story of leadership with the characters left behind. The story resumes six years later, Rick's presence and influence are felt in the way they try to defend messages he believed or had distanced himself from. But this memory is very much alive and we will learn, in the days that followed, that they were looking for it and looking for it. Judith shows up at the end of the fifth episode and she has her father's gun, so it comes from somewhere. We have somehow been dealing with characters who have not managed to find the closure they wanted and it is certainly something that weighs on everyone. We will also see that Rick really had a lot of advance on people regarding the design of the future, though they were not doing it all together to work together. He knew that this bridge – both metaphorically and literally – connected these communities, so it's an integral part of our history, and I can not wait for people to see it.

We are now in six years and from what we have seen, it seems that walkers are evolving. Can you talk a bit about that and the new barriers that other members will face?

AK: We enter a really exciting part of history, we will enter the plot "The Whisperers" of the comics, which deals with the same question: walkers evolve? How do we manage a threat that we do not understand? So, there is really mystery, and the turn, and a lot of action, excitement and suspense. This story, as in the comics, will really try to pay homage to the way this has been brilliantly traced. I will say that this group is facing some of the most frightening threats they've ever had and it's completely different from everything we've done in the series.

Let's talk about Maggie – was this the last episode of Lauren Cohan? Can you talk a bit about her departure and if we will see her again someday?

AK: So that was Lauren's last appearance on the screen for the season. Lauren is also looking for other great opportunities, but we are very committed to trying to tell our stories with Maggie, and Lauren is also excited about it. It's all that takes time and things to fix. We have a very clear idea of ​​Maggie's position in the universe and what she's doing, and we have some ideas in preparation for the next story that we would tell, so that everything will be fine. We are really excited and we are very fortunate to have her for these five episodes this season because I think she just did an absolutely stellar job.

There were some who accepted the fact that we were going to say goodbye to Rick Grimes, and now it is revealed that Andrew Lincoln will be playing in no less than one, but three new movies. What would you say to fans who were ready to put Rick's chapter at rest?

AK: What we wanted to do with the show, is to give the impression that there was some sort of sense of conclusion – but by closing one door, we opened another. What I heard in the[[[[TWD fan]The universe is really exciting and I think and I hope it's a topic that will interest fans. I mostly heard that people were relieved not to have to watch Rick die because he inspired so many people and millions of fans around the world. I hope people will join us and that we have a lot of great stories with the rest of the cast and I think that's the thing you really need to focus on.

The dead who walk Sundays at 21h EST / PST on AMC.

RELATED CONTENT: