The Walking Dead franchise has extended over the years with its popularity and longevity. The series introduced a spinoff in 2015, Fear the Walking Dead which will release season five sometime this year. Andrew Lincoln will be reprising his role as Rick Grimes for a movie trilogy. To further expand the franchise, a second spinoff has been confirmed.
AMC COO Ed Carroll shared very little detail regarding any plotlines and characters for the spinoff, but his shared excitement with the show’s developers seems to leave a positive reaction.
“We’re not at a stage where we’ll be announcing its plans to premiere,” Carroll said. “But we have hired creative people that have pitched story outlines. We feel very good about the development of that series. We’re not in a position to talk about partnerships in terms of other territories or ancillary windows, other than that there’s a healthy appetite for it and we’ve had a number of conversations with a lot of players in the space.”
The Walking Dead is currently airing its ninth season with the show picking up its pace and introducing a new, dangerous group – the Whisperers. The series has been renewed for a tenth season. Spending so many years on TV can lead to staleness and the zombie drama has shown that in the past. However, its impact on the network has drawn great praise.
“We are well aware that when a show has been around for nine years, you would expect viewership to be declining, but I think we’ve managed that and managed that well,” Carroll said. “When The Walking Dead is no longer part of the channel, I think that will have more of an impact on revenue than on [income] because generally, expenses go up as the seasons continue and viewership declines. That’s just a general pattern with any show that’s been around as long as The Walking Dead has.”
Continue watching new episodes Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.