My Thoughts About The Walking Dead 11B Trailer

The long-awaited trailer to The Walking Dead season 11B arrived to great fanfare on Wednesday. Cast members teased the trailer’s arrival with a special message released the day before, giving fans a taste of what was coming.

And what an amuse bouche it was. 

After eleven seasons, The Walking Dead is one of the rare shows that’s stronger than it has ever been. Through ups and downs, cast departures and new additions, it has weathered good times and bad times to arrive in its extended final season. 

The trailer is dark. It’s heavy. It’s full of tense, dramatic moments. The bass booms between cut scenes of our beloved characters facing off against some unseen threat. 

Funny enough, that descriptor could work for any season’s trailer because that’s how TWD rolls. But this time there’s something different: the Commonwealth. In between the darkness, the threats and the bashing of walker heads lies the bright lights of the Commonwealth. 

“We’re doing this all wrong,” Daryl (Norman Reedus) says to an unknown audience. “We’ve survived everything for what? Keep fighting and killing each other?” That sentence finishes with a shot of Leah (Lynn Collins), the new leader of the Reapers. 

Alexandrians have arrived at the Commonwealth, but things don’t look peaceful just yet. Toward the end of the trailer there’s a quick shot of Daryl, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) getting ready to fire at the Commonwealth soldiers who have arrived at Alexandria’s gate.

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) talks about it being a “matter of time” before someone makes “the same call.” Who is he talking to? Maggie?

Carol (Melissa McBride) is baking again…and you know what that means…

Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) is in a ball gown at a posh party while Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Magna (Nadia Hilker) ponder their role in a place like the Commonwealth. 

The 11B trailer features quick glimpses at just about everyone else in the cast, including Kelly (Angel Theory) and Connie (Lauren Ridloff). It’s a very inclusive trailer, with just about everyone represented at some point.

What does it all mean?

I think it goes without saying that Alexandria was going to end up at the Commonwealth at some point in 11B so it isn’t surprising to see the groups together, nor does it spoil anything. 

The interesting tidbits lie in what’s happening outside of the Commonwealth, because that’s where the stakes are higher than ever. In the forest, out in the open, the Reapers are still threatening anyone in their path and there is danger everywhere.

Then again, life inside the Commonwealth isn’t exactly peaceful, either. The trailer hints at tension within the community, especially with the arrival of the Alexandria delegation. 

The Walking Dead has always been able to deliver powerful, thrilling trailers. 11B continues in that tradition, but there’s no mistaking the overlying heaviness stemming from knowledge that this is the middle segment of the final season. After this, there will only be eight more episodes before the show ends. 

The silver lining, of course, is that the next eight episodes promise to deliver some big moments that will move the story forward in preparation for the final eight episodes. 

There’s so much to be excited about as a TWD fan. And so much to be grateful for. Making a TV show in the middle of the pandemic is A TON of work between COVID safety protocols and finding new ways to film scenes to keep people safe. The fact that TWD hasn’t shut down a single time since filming resumed in 2021 is a testament to their commitment to safety. As a fan of the show as well as a TWD journalist I’m grateful to the hard work that the cast and crew puts in, day after day, so that we can enjoy new episodes of the show we love.