The final season of 'The Walking Dead' will premiere this summer

• "The Walking Dead" will premiere its final 11th season this summer.
• "TWD" usually starts new seasons in October.
• The final super-sized season will be 24 episodes instead of the usual 16 episodes.

This is unexpected.

AMC announced Sunday night during a brief commercial that its final 11th season of "The Walking Dead" will premiere this summer.

—The Walking Dead on AMC (@WalkingDead_AMC) March 1, 2021

The summer date is a surprise since "TWD" usually debuts new seasons in October. The show's schedule was changed up last year due to the pandemic.

As a result, AMC ordered a bonus six episodes of the show's season 10, which debuted on the network Sunday night. In September, AMC announced "TWD" will end in 2022 with an expanded 24-episode final season.

While no specific premiere date was announced for season 11, if we do some detective work, we know "Fear TWD" returns with nine new episodes on April 11, 2021.

If "Fear" runs for nine weeks straight and leads right into a new season of "TWD," we could see the show return to TV as early as June 13, 2021. Currently, "Fear TWD," "TWD," and "TWD: World Beyond" are all filming new episodes simultaneously.

For now, "TWD" has five more new episodes airing Sunday nights on AMC at 9 p.m.

You can follow along with our "TWD" coverage here.