The Walking Dead won’t overtake its source material like Game of Thrones, and that’s bad

When Stannis Baratheon burned his daughter Shireen at the stake in Game of Thrones season 5, the show crossed something of a threshold: a moment that hadn’t yet happened in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels happened on the TV adaptation. By the time Jon Snow rose from the dead early in season 6, the show was running at a gallop and not looking back.

It was inevitable something like this would happen, as the show had been catching up to Martin at a rapid pace for a while and showed no signs of slowing. As there’s still no release date for the next book in Martin’s saga, The Winds of Winter, so it’s only going to continue. Do other fans face this issue? AMC’s The Walking Dead, for example, is based on a series of comic books that’s still ongoing. Is there any danger that show will overtake its source material?

According to an interview The Walking Dead showrunner Scott M. Gimple gave to The Hollywood Reporter, no. “With some plans we have for the future, I don’t think so. I think it’s unlikely, but it depends where the book stops.”

Generally speaking, The Walking Dead has stayed as close to the source material as possible, give or take a new character here (Daryl) or a new group of survivors there (the Scavengers). Unlike the producers on Game of Thrones, they don’t seem willing to cut much, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t be afraid of catching up.

Robert Kirkman, the man who created The Walking Dead (think of him as George R.R. Martin but with zombies) and a producer on the show, also doesn’t see The Walking Dead pulling a Game of Thrones.

"I don’t know if anyone sat down to do the math, but if the show is gaining on the comic book, it’s at a very slow pace. We’re expanding storylines so every now and then we zip through the comic book, and then we slow down for a while and add a bunch of stuff that’s not in the comics. There’s not any danger of that happening in any way."

But that brings up another question: is it a good thing that The Walking Dead is in no danger of overtaking its source material? Reviews for the show’s recently completed seventh season have been lackluster, and the ratings have been dropping. After watching season 7, it’s hard not to attribute those losses to the show’s flagging pace, something that could be avoided if the producers cut through some of the fat.

On the other hand, ratings for Game of Thrones are on the rise, and the industry recognition continues to pour in. The choice of the Game of Thrones producers to cut material from A Song of Ice and Fire has riled some fans, but it’s kept the narrative from losing focus. The show hasn’t meandered nearly as much as The Walking Dead, and that’s kept interest high. On Game of Thrones, we get a consistent storyline, and viewers are willing to trust that it will come to a head soon.

I mean, can you imagine an entire season of Game of Thrones where the Starks just stay at Winterfell and we observe their boring day-to-day lives? Sansa doing needlepoint, Jon, Robb, and Bran shooting at targets, Catelyn giving Jon the stinkeye, Hodor Hodoring…And the only big reveal of the season would be that Arya, who had gone missing in episode 1, was a wight the entire time, and that Ned had been keeping her in a barn and feeding her the bodies of deserters from the Night’s Watch? Sounds terrible, right? Well, The Walking Dead did it.

The Walking Dead may not be in danger of pulling a Game of Thrones, but that may be exactly what’s needed.