AMC chief confirms The Walking Dead isn’t going anywhere

The Walking Dead has been taking its lumps lately. Longtime series star Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) left last season. Danai Gurira (Michonne) is on the way out as well. Ratings are falling precipitously, and author Robert Kirkman wrapped up the long-running Walking Dead comic earlier this month. With The Walking Dead season 10 approaching on AMC, is it time to put this series down for a long dirt nap?

No, don’t be ridiculous. Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour, AMC President of Programming David Madden explained to The Wrap why the network is not only happy with The Walking Dead, but expanding the universe:

"Once ‘Game of Thrones’ is technically off the air, it’s the No. 2 show on TV. You don’t sneeze at it being No. 2 out of the three billion shows that are on TV."

No matter how much pundits may scoff at the series outstaying its welcome, Madden does have a point there. The show may not have monster ratings it once had, but it still has a dedicated audience. “I’m not saying the show will go 20 seasons, but I’m not saying it won’t,” Madden added, chilling us to our marrow.

Michonne (Danai Gurira) in Episode 4. Photo by Jackson Lee Davis/AMC

Madden and his team were concerned about a drop after Lincoln left, but were pleasantly surprised. “The episode that followed his departure dropped 1% from the previous episode,” Madden said. “That, we thought, was stunningly strong in terms of a hold. I think the show still has — with Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride and Jeffrey Dean Morgan — a lot of characters who are truly beloved on the show.”

Madden also isn’t concerned with Kirkman wrapping up the source material. “We’ve diverged from the comic long ago,” he said. “We’re now telling our own story. I don’t think, either in the show’s mind or in Kirkman’s mind, the end of the comic book really affects the plan for the show. None of us knew… I think it was a surprise to him. I think he got to a point where he said, ‘You know, what I think this is done.'”

There’s already a Walking Dead spinoff shambling across our TV screens: Fear the Walking Dead. Madden’s confidence explains the network’s decision to launch an as-yet-untitled third show set in the same universe. That show, which will explore the lives of the first generation of kids to come of age after the zombie apocalypse, begins filming this coming Monday. “The new show is really on its own separate path,” Madden said. “It’s a different feel and different tone. It won’t look anything like the other two shows.”

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And there’s more! In addition to the third show, Lincoln is set to return to the role of Rick Grimes in a Universal Pictures-distributed theatrical romp. “It could’ve ended up with us, it could’ve ended up at a streaming platform,” Madden mused. “It’s a big dream to have a current TV show that is still on the air to have a feature film incarnation. That doesn’t happen very often.”

David Madden is living the dream, people. Even if his dream is a nightmare for people who tired of zombies long ago.

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