AMC’s flagship show, The Walking Dead, has been shuffling along for ten long seasons. That’s not to say the show doesn’t have a loyal and even rabid fanbase, because it does, but as a longtime fan of Robert Kirkman’s comics — and to some extent the show — I can say with all honesty that I wish it had been canceled around season 5.
So far, the show has spawned one spinoff in Fear the Walking Dead, a show — which just completed its fifth season — that started out with great promise, only to fizzle out in the past two seasons. With only three members of the original cast still remaining, the storylines have become a complete joke, with some survivors actually refusing to kill walkers for a while, trusting every human they came across which, of course, cost many of them their lives, and, among other ridiculous things, flying over a mountain range in a goddam beer bottle-shaped hot air balloon.
Anyway, AMC is tripling down on The Walking Dead name and has created a second spinoff. The as-yet titled show is about teenagers learning to live in the zombie apocalypse after leaving the safety of a walled city with over 9,000 residents living there. Here’s the trailer, in case you’ve yet to see it.
The show is set 10 years into the apocalypse, in the Midwest, in a community that has built itself into a safe haven, a fortress, where life isn’t just about surviving anymore. Oh, and they call the zombies “empties,” instead of “walkers.”
Photo: Jojo Whilden (AMC)
In fact, this group of young folk have no idea about the survivors in Alexandria from the main show, nor do they know about Morgan’s group from Fear. Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s TV podcast, Chief Content Officer for The Walking Dead franchise, Scott M. Gimple talked about what fans can expect from the show.
“The show has, in some ways, a different mythology set in the world,” he said. “It is still set in the same world, but the things that they’re tied up in are very different than the things that the other shows have featured and the lives that we’ve seen these other characters lead.”
"I don’t mean that they simply start in a settled place but the system that they’re under and the system that they’re tied into and trying to get out of is so different from anything we’ve seen. And it gives this show, with its very young perspective, a very different feel. The things that they’re tied up in, we have not seen on the other shows."
Photo: Sarah Shatz (AMC)
Gimple is actually describing a show I’d be interested in watching. It sounds like a fresh take on a story that has clearly gone way past stale on both already established shows. The question is, will it pay off with audiences in general?
Despite having a fairly decent storyline in season 10, the show’s ratings continue to plummet to all-time lows.
Regardless, I’m looking forward to what showrunner Matthew Negrete and executive producers Robert Kirkman and Greg Nicotero can deliver. The cast includes Aliyah Royale (Iris), Alexa Mansour (Hope), Nicolas Cantu (Elton), Hal Cumpston (Silas), Annet Mahendru (Huck) and Nico Tortorella (Felix).
The second Walking Dead spinoff makes its debut in the spring of 2020, which is right about the time the main show nears its season 10 finale. In the summer, Fear the Walking Dead returns for its sixth season. Looks like AMC is planning a year-round Walking Dead takeover.
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h/t Digital Spy