The Walking Dead's Last Episode Originally Was A Lot Bigger
Although the series finale of "The Walking Dead" is certainly very climactic (providing a satisfying conclusion to the war with the Commonwealth, led by Laila Robin's tyrannical Pamela Milton), in many ways the episode is not really a finale at all — acting more as a bridge between "The Walking Dead" and the slew of spin-off shows to follow. Sure, the episode provides a conclusion to Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam), and Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos), but major characters like Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) all end the series with plenty of unfinished business.
On top of the fact that this finale wasn't really an ending for most of the main characters in the series, some fans might be disappointed to learn that the finale was actually intended to be much larger than the final cut we saw on television. "I mean, the original version of our script was not shootable in the time and with the money that we had," said showrunner Angela Kang during an interview with Insider. "So, in that way, there were compromises made because we had to cut down a lot of what we had and we still got extra days and extra money. But it was not as much as if we did the full version of the script as we originally imagined."
Kang went on to say that this is a normal and expected part of the shooting process and that compromises had to be made throughout the entire season. Though Kang did not go into explicit detail about everything that was cut from this episode, her comments make it clear that the series finale of "The Walking Dead" was much longer in the original script.
Outside of Rosita's ambulance ride, we don't know what other scenes were cut down
While Angela Kang did not break down every specific aspect of the episode that was cut for time, she did mention one particular scene focusing on Rosita Espinosa that was altered for the final cut.
"The only thing I can remember off the top of my head, just 'cause our interview time is short, is the sequence with Rosita going down by the ambulance," Kang explained. "That was originally a longer, bigger sequence." Kang also emphasized that, although the final product may not have been as enormous as the original script intended, she was still very happy with how this series finale turned out. Kang claims that the ultimate goal of the episode was to bring back Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) (a dual cameo that helped set up their own upcoming spinoff, similar to the other primary Survivors) and "focus on the current cast" in the end — both of which they successfully accomplished despite the cuts.
Although it's clear that Kang still feels that the finale of "The Walking Dead" is very strong as an episode, one still has to wonder what the episode might have looked like if the team had the time and resources to film every aspect of the original script.