The Walking Dead confirms major episode shake-up in extended season 10 as Negan takes centre stage

THE Walking Dead's extended tenth season will be taking on a brand new format when it arrives next year.

The AMC zombie drama announced that it would be adding six episodes to the season after a year of production delays caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.

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However, this caused some confusion, given that the show aired its hotly-anticipated finale back in October.

It turns out that rather than simply pick up where the finale left off, the new episodes will take the form of standalone stories deliving into various characters' pasts.

These flashbacks aim to flesh out some of the franchise's most prominent characters, who previously may not have been in focus.

Executive Producer Scott Gimple said that while the bridge picks up "in the afternmath of 10A and 10B" and "is part of that story," the new format was in fact inspired by spin-off series Fear The Walking Dead.

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"Like like Fear the Walking Dead, they're concentrated stories because they're shot in a way where we only have a couple of characters that we're focusing on. I just love those kind of stories," he explained.

"It's weird, for all of the intensity and fire that was under everyone to turn out as well, they're amazing... It's really strange, the circumstances, how this all came together, but these six episodes are gonna be something that I think people are gonna really, really enjoy," he continued to .

He claimed that of them all, the Negan-focused episode - which fans got a preview of last week - was his favourite.

"If anybody saw that episode... it's one of the most brilliant episodes that the show has done," he gushed.

"I'm so proud of everybody who worked on that one. I'm proud of the entire season. They shot six episodes in six weeks."

Last week the show shared its first look at Negan's late wife Lucille - and it's no wonder the pair have killer chemistry.

It turns out that Negan actor Jeffrey Dean-Morgan's real life wife Hilarie Burton will be taking on the role.

As fans will know, Negan named his infamous baseball bat Lucille after his late wife and formed a striking attachment to the object.

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Lucille will make her debut a via eries of flashbacks that delve into Negan's past marriage for viewers.

Because Negan has been so tight-lipped about Lucille, so far all we know is that she died of pancreatic cancer before later reanimating not long into the outbreak.

However, he admitted in season 8 that not putting her down when she rose from the dead was one of his biggest regrets.

The Walking Dead is available to stream now on Netflix and NOW TV.