Why 'The Walking Dead' series finale didn't kill off more characters

• The final season of "The Walking Dead" is finally available to stream on Netflix.

• Most characters shockingly survived the series. Only one major death occurred on the finale.

• Showrunner Angela Kang told Insider carnage was "not true to the spirit of the overall story."

The final season of "The Walking Dead" is finally streaming on Netflix.

If you're just catching up on the extended 11th season, you may be surprised to find there weren't many major deaths across the season.

Shockingly, most characters survived the entire series. Aside from a handful of deaths from characters who joined the series in later seasons, the largest deaths all season were Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Luke (Dan Fogler).

But if you were expecting more gruesome zombie action or were let down by the number of deaths on the final season, then you were missing the point of "The Walking Dead."

"The show is known for its carnage, but if you look at the source material, it is moving towards: How do you create something that sustains for the next generation?" showrunner Angela Kang told Insider in November when discussing the series finale, pointing out that many people survive the comic.

In Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead," which ended its run in 2019, Carl, Maggie, Michonne, Hershel, Princess, Mercer, Eugene, Aaron, Negan, and Lydia are among the many characters to survive the entire series.

"The thing that we can't do is do what the comic did, which is, the leads die," Kang said of Rick and Andrea in the comics. "We know that all of the people that kind of fit that are going off to spin-offs."

Andrea (Laurie Holden) was shockingly killed off the series back on season three. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) departed the show in 2018 and is currently missing in the "TWD" universe.

Last summer, Lincoln and Danai Gurira surprised fans at San Diego Comic-Con to announce they'll return in their own "The Walking Dead" spin-off, which was teased in the finale.

As Kang mentioned, other characters who would've fit the lead role to die are instead receiving their own spin-offs as well. Daryl (Norman Reedus) will appear in a spin-off set in Paris while Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) will appear in this spring's "TWD: Dead City" in New York City.

With a few untouchables out of play to be killed off on the series finale, that left a limited number of impactful characters to kill.

"Rosita's sort of the next biggest person left alive and Christian volunteered for her death," Kang said of why Serratos' character died.

First appearing on the show's fourth season, Rosita received a version of Andrea's comic death, getting fatally bit while saving her daughter.

"I felt that doing a carnage version is actually not true to the spirit of the overall story," Kang continued, adding of the finale's other big death, "I think one impactful death plus Luke, which gives us a lot of sense of stakes at the beginning, for me, I feel like that's enough to really pay honor to how important a character Rosita is and not kind of litter the thing with 'just everybody randomly dies.'"

Kang's right.

Though "TWD" was a "zombie" show for more than a decade, it didn't solely rely on guts and gore.

One of the biggest reasons to tune in, even after many fans stopped watching, was because it showed very relatable, human relationships. The underlying message of the series has always been about family, survival, becoming more than what you thought you could be in a new world, and, most of all, hope for the future.

That's how "TWD" ended, even if it wound up feeling a bit rushed.

Read the original article on Insider