Why The Walking Dead Just Got Cancelled

3. The Comic Has Already Lived Longer Than Anyone Thought Possible

So, that inherent element of surprise was why The Walking Dead's ending was so sudden, but why are the creators even ending it at all? After all, this is the series that Kirkman loves to call the "zombie movie that never ends", and there must have been some truth to his claims that the story is larger than one man, that it's more Carl's story than it is Rick's, so why is the narrative suddenly finished, well under the 300-issue mission statement?

For one, 16 years is a long, long time to work on a single project. The Walking Dead's monthly (sometimes more frequent) issues demand a lot from the writers and artists, and even with Kirkman's clear passion for the project remaining strong, along with the continued success of both the comic and its cross-media spin-off, it's easy to see why he'd want to wind it down. Though it's never been the sole comic he's worked on, the writer has branched out in recent years to new projects that provide a whole new avenue of creative possibilities.

For book like The Walking Dead, a 15-plus-year run overseen by the same creatives is almost unprecedented, and if the original plan was indeed to extend it up to nearly 300 issues, it would have been a daunting task to commit to over two decades working on the same story.