A new trailer for the final six episodes of The Walking Dead season ten may have opened up a huge plot hole in the series.
The additional episodes for the delayed tenth season will act as the penultimate chapter for the flagship series before season eleven puts an end to the apocalyptic epic.
Newcomer Hilarie Burton is set to play Lucille, the dead wife of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s somewhat reformed Negan, who became one of the series’ most popular villains at the end of season six.
Although Lucille was said by Negan to have died shortly after the deadly outbreak, she lives on in the series as the namesake for the Savior leader’s bludgeoning baseball bat.
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When the new footage was released recently on Twitter, one fan took issue with a scene which showcased Lucille’s role in the early stages of the zombie apocalypse.
They wrote: “Note that Negan says that Lucille died of cancer before the pandemic, yet we see her kill a prowler.”
Die-hard fans of the popular series may take issue with the claim, as Negan initially said his wife died of pancreatic cancer in the early days of the zombie takeover.
The revelation took place between Negan and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) when they were trapped in a trailer in the episode ‘The Big Scary U’ following an attack on the Sanctuary.
However, a later conversation which took place in season ten between Negan and the Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton) may have caught the former Saviour in a lie.
One fan recalled on Reddit: “What I am puzzled about though is that in 08×05 he tells Gabriel that Lucille died “during this” (the outbreak), but in 10×12 he tells Alpha that he lost her before walkers showed up.
“And now in the 10C trailer they clearly show Lucille alive and killing walkers. Got some continuity issues there.”
In the trailer, Lucille is sporting a wig and appears frail and tired, indicating she is currently undergoing treatment for her cancer.
Sadly, the sight of her taking out an approaching walker with a pistol flies in the face of what had already been set up in the series, depending on which episode you’re referring too, of course.
With a number of Walking Dead spin-offs already on the horizon to extend the series after the final season, the sprawling narrative is only going to get more complicated.
Even so, it’s disappointing to see the long-running zombie franchise failing to keep hold of the narrative at such a pivotal moment in the series.
The Walking Dead season 10 returns Sunday, February 28 on AMC.