Like the season five finale before it, the upcoming finale for the sixth season of "The Walking Dead" is getting an extended running time.

AMC revealed this week that the episode, set to air on April 3, will run for 90 minutes, 30 minutes longer than the show's usual hour-long format. Last fall's season six premiere was also a supersized installment, as was this season's fourth episode, the Morgan-centric "Here's Not Here."

Whether fans should be excited about this extended runtime is another story. On the one hand, it should give the series some extra time for a proper introduction of notorious comic villain Negan, who's set to finally show up in the flesh in the season finale. But based on past examples of the 90-minute format (like those listed above), the added minutes usually just translate into a bloated, meandering episode, with lots of introspective monologues padded around very few minutes of actual action.

Then again, viewers have also been promised some serious carnage, and based on the brutality that the Saviors have shown so far (remember those gruesome Polaroids at the compound, or the offering of fake Gregory's severed head?), the villains should (hopefully) make those extra minutes worth fans' while.

"The Walking Dead" airs its season six finale on April 3 on AMC.

[via: Entertainment Weekly]

Photo credit: Gene Page/AMC