The Walking Dead: spin-offs and movies in the future of zombie franchise that just won’t die
- The popular zombie series starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride finishes in 2022, but it’s not that easy to kill
- Franchise head Scott Gimple and producer Angela Kang talk about their plans for movies and an anthology show
The Walking Dead will soon be dead. AMC’s flagship series, or as franchise head Scott Gimple puts it, “Walking Dead Classic”, will end in 2022 after an epic 24-episode final season spread over two years. That’s a bold move by the network when it comes to the most watched show in cable history.
Of course, when did death ever stop anything in this franchise?
“That part’s decided by AMC,” said Gimple when asked about the decision to give the series, which premiered in 2010, a Viking funeral, planned to coincide with the end of its comic-book source material.
But Gimple said there were also creative advantages to letting it go. “Years ago, before my last year showrunning, I had gone to AMC with this whole notion of opening up the Walking Dead world.
“That’s what led to this position [as chief content officer] and then the movies and then The Walking Dead: The World Beyond, Tales of the Walking Dead … We knew there would be another show within “Walking Dead Classic”, and Daryl and Carol came out of that with discussions between Angela and I,” he said.