The world may be filled with zombies but The Walking Dead has a lot of life left in it. At least according to Scott Gimple, who heads up the franchise for AMC. The hit zombie series recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. Based on Robert Kirkman’s comic book of the same name, the flagship show ran for 11 seasons, creating several spin-offs in its wake. As Gimple tells it, these spin-offs could keep the franchise alive for another 15 years.
Gimple, as well as many of the cast members and creatives, recently gathered for a Walking Dead 15th anniversary celebration at Mipcom. Per Variety, Gimple was bullish on the prospects of the universe soldiering on beyond the current spin-off, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“It’s quite possible we could see this group up here 15 years from now. There are many more continents to visit. It’s about how [the characters] evolve over time. It’s really exciting to see how far we can take this.”
“It was all one story. It went in all sorts of different directions,” Gimple added during the panel. “Even with characters who have done so many things, we can put them in different worlds where they have different challenges and evolve them through these challenges.”
As mentioned, The Walking Dead season 11 concluded the main series on AMC back in 2022. Fear the Walking Dead, the first spin-off in the universe, also called it quits after eight seasons and over 100 episodes. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though as we also had Walking Dead: World Beyond, which lasted two seasons. Then there’s the anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead, which aired just one season to date.
More recently, Maggie and Negan united in Walking Dead: Dead City. That show has aired two seasons, with a possible third on the way. Meanwhile, Daryl Dixon season 3 is about to come to a close, with season 4 already announced. Rick and Michonne additionally anchored the miniseries The Ones Who Live. That was originally envisioned as a series of movies but later shifted to a TV show instead.
As for the future? Gimple and the gang didn’t specify what that’s going to look like but he did say, “In a lot of ways, [the locations] give the story to us.” In short, it’s a big world full of zombies. We’ve seen Georgia. We’ve seen New York City. We’ve seen France. What about Asia? What about Africa? What does the zombie apocalypse look like in Mexico? In theory, if the audience is there, the story possibilities are endless.
The Walking Dead universe shows are all streaming on AMC+.
What do you think? Would you like to see more Walking Dead spin-offs? Or is it time for AMC to call it quits? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
