The Walking Dead’s Hilltop Battle Proves Season 11’s Death Problem

screenrant.com:

The Walking Dead season 11 is fast developing a death problem — and Hilltop's clash between Maggie Rhee and Lance Hornsby proves it. For as long as The Walking Dead has existed, living up to the title's violent promise has not been an issue. AMC's zombie apocalypse cable hit quickly become renowned for killing off major characters with almost gleeful abandon — sometimes taking cues from the comics, other times forging its own path. Glenn, Beth, Tyreese, and even Carl freaking Grimes can attest to how sharp The Walking Dead's axe truly is. Though sometimes controversial, that propensity to bump off main characters at the drop of a hat has become both a defining trait and a key strength of The Walking Dead.

With The Walking Dead season 11 officially drawing proceedings to a close, many would've expected the show's grim reaper to be pulling double shifts as the episodes dwindled. The zombie apocalypse is a bloody place at the best of times — surely The Walking Dead's final season finds a new level? This is where «shared universe» franchise building becomes an obstacle. At the time of writing, Maggie, Negan, Daryl, Carol, and Rick are all confirmed for The Walking Dead spinoffs and/or movies — and those are just the ones announced so far. When so many characters are locked into future projects, how does The Walking Dead keep audiences guessing in its final season?

Related: Walking Dead Might've Just Connected The Commonwealth To The CRM

IfThe Walking Dead season 11, part 2's finale is anything to go by, it doesn't. The most significant character death in season 11's first block belonged to Alden, and although the emotional impact of his exit was keenly felt, the death itself occurred entirely off-screen. Being