The Walking Dead Franchise Is Not Even Close To Over
Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, the television adaptation of The Walking Dead has been a welcome ratings hit for the AMC network. After 11 seasons and 177 episodes on the air, the zombie post-apocalyptic series wrapped its finale last week, but the franchise as a whole will no doubt continue. According to an interview that executive producer Scott Gimple gave to AMC, there are no plans to slow down the franchise as Gimple explains that they are just scratching the surface and will “jump into other characters” in due time.
The Walking Dead has so far spawned the spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead as well as The Walking Dead: World Beyond, but there are plans to feature more iterations to the media franchise. Up ahead are supposed to be even more spin-offs of the original series, including one that will feature Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, and another that will focus on Andrew Lincoln’s Rick and Danai Gurira’s Michonne.
Scott Gimple went on to say in his interview that the characters from The Walking Dead are just the start of an expanded universe of characters he would like to see the light of day, commenting on the proposed spin-offs by stating, “We want to get these shows up on their feet and then start widening out the world again.”
There are even more plans in place to widen that world that Gimple is talking about, with the series finale serving as a jumping-off point to create more spin-offs to showcase the comic book series’s characters. In addition to Daryl, Rick, and Michonne’s television shows, a new series entitled The Walking Dead: Dead City featuring Lauren Cohan’s Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan is in the works. Also already in its first season with more on the docket is the anthology series called Tales of the Walking Dead, which is presented as a way to detail some of the backstories of individual characters from the original series.
The first season of The Walking Dead was conceived by writer and director Frank Darabont, which ended up capitalizing on the growing interest from viewers in zombie content. Popular films like Dawn of the Dead and Zombieland had worked via a premise of the existence of zombies, and The Walking Dead comic book series had a devoted fan base already built in. AMC had become known for dramas like Breaking Bad and Mad Men before The Walking Dead came along and lasted for more seasons than either of its predecessors.
The Walking Dead always proved to be appointment television for many of its viewers, often debuting a new season of the long-running series in the month of October to coincide with the Halloween holiday season. Beginning with the first season at six episodes, the series grew many of the years it aired on AMC to showcase more episodes, typically around 16 episodes per season. On the 11th and final season of The Walking Dead, AMC granted the series 24 episodes total to complete the storylines and set up the proposed spin-offs for success, which will all debut on the same network beginning in 2023.
