THE WALKING DEAD Creators Considering More Spin-Offs, Limited Series, and Even Animation
AMC’s The Walking Dead is coming to a crossroads, with its flagship series coming to an end after the next season, and newly announced projects on the horizon. There’s a Daryl and Carol spin-off, the World Beyond series that just started and will feed into multi-movie Rick Grimes storyline, as well as the anthology series that will delve into the lives of people we haven’t met yet in this universe. Now, franchise chief content officer Scott M. Gimple has teased that there may be even more in store.
In a recent interview with THR, Gimple talked about the anthology series, actually stating that the show will include the occasional familiar face, saying:
“What's cool about Tales of the Walking Dead is there's so many stories that have nothing to do and will never have anything to do with anything we've seen on any of the shows. But on the other hand, there will be characters from the past, from the shows, there'll be characters from the shows present. There will be, I hope in some ways, extensions of the current stories. That in some ways that we can continue stories. Continue some stories of The Walking Dead, some characters in the Walking Dead, beyond Daryl and Carol. And same for World Beyond.”
He went on to talk about the formats that the creators are looking to utilize:
“I'm hoping that other formats allow for [different types of stories]. We're also looking at miniseries and how that can work; six-episode series that are just six episodes. And whether those are folded into Tales of the Walking Dead, whether they stand on their own. There's one that we're working on right now that I absolutely love, and one of the Walking Dead writers is working on it, and it's amazing. It is just also a question of just how much we can do at once and what the need is over the next two years.”
He added:
“I will say that one thing I'm looking at hard is animation. I mean, [Robert Kirkman, whose comic book Invincible is in production as an animated hourlong drama at Amazon] has a lot of talent around that, so that's one-stop shopping for me. [World Beyond co-creator Matt Negrete] and I actually come from animation. We worked initially together in animation back in the day.”
He went on to say that although they are excited about the many projects and ideas that are in the works, it is a bittersweet feeling seeing the original series come to an end. It being such an incredibly huge TV phenomenon, as well as a monumental career accomplishment for those involved, Gimple said, “It all went by way, way, way too fast.”
I can only imagine that’s true. I have really enjoyed the ride, and I am excited for the future of the franchise. What ideas would you like to see explored in the future of The Walking Dead universe?