AMC is doubling down on its streaming service AMC+.
The network on Monday announced that The Walking Dead Season 10 will resume one week earlier than planned, but only for those who pay for the streaming service.
That’s right:
You can watch The Walking Season 10 Episode 17 on Sunday, February 21 – one week ahead of its linear premiere on Sunday, February 28 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC.
All subsequent episodes will debut early on the premium streaming bundle, every Thursday prior to the episodes’ linear premiere on Sundays.
News of the early premiere is not surprising: New episodes have been launching days ahead of their traditional cable TV broadcast for a while now, but a whole week is something else.
Last on The Walking Dead, we witnessed the fall of Alpha (Samantha Morton) and the end of the Whisperers War.
The Kingdom had fallen, Hilltop was virtually destroyed and Alexandria abandoned to prepare for final battle. Our survivors were trapped and separated from one another.
Yet, when faced with almost certain death, they rallied together to fight, killing Beta (Ryan Hurst) and eliminating the threat of the horde.
In these six new episodes, we find our survivors trying to pick themselves up by their bootstraps following the destruction the Whisperers left in their wake.
The years of struggle weigh upon them as past traumas surface, exposing their more vulnerable sides.
As they question the state of humanity, the state of their collective community, and the states of their minds, will they find the inner strength to persevere with their lives, friendships, and group intact?
New guest stars featured in these episodes include Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Perry Mason, Scorpion) as Mays and Hilarie Burton Morgan (One Tree Hill, White Collar, Friday Night In with the Morgans) as Lucille” along with new co-star Okea Eme-Akwari (Greenland, Cobra Kai) as “Elijah,” among others.
AMC announced that The Walking Dead Season 10 would be extended by six episodes last year due to the pandemic.
These episodes will take on a self-contained approach but will shed light on a lot more of the finer details of the characters and their actions.
The series will continue for an eleventh — and final — season, which has landed a 24-episode order to be spread over 2021 and 2022.
And the franchise is set to expand again with a Carol & Daryl spinoff, as well as the planned Tales of the Walking Dead series.
AMC is also working on a trilogy of movies featuring Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes.
They join the ongoing series Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.