Anyone believing that the end of The Walking Dead’s flagship show is about to start the zombie franchise shambling into wind-down mode need not worry – or perhaps rejoice in some cases – as AMC have announced that a new spin-off series is coming in the form of Tales of the Walking Dead next year. Unlike other shows such as Fear The Walking Dead and Walking Dead: World Beyond, this newest addition to the zombie family, which was originally announced last year, will act like an anthology of one-shot comics, with each episode being a stand-alone story about both long-standing characters as well as new faces to the series.
The Walking Dead aired its first episode in 2010 and in the eleven years since it has become one of the biggest programs on television, even if in recent years the ratings have been taking a bit of a slide, and there have been a lot of characters passing through during that time for this new series to really draw back in some of the best and most loved characters from the history of Robert Kirkman’s zombie soap opera. While the first season will consist of a conservative six one-hour episodes, which will enter production at the turn of the year with an expected premiere in the summer, it is a fair assumption to say that more will follow soon after.
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The series will see The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead producer and writer Channing Powell act as showrunner, and said of the new project, “I started as a fan of The Walking Dead and have ended up as a showrunner of what will hopefully be one of its most unique spin-offs. That’s nuts and I’m so grateful to AMC and Scott [Gimple] for supporting me and my writers while we pushed, pulled and poked at the boundaries of this universe to bring you something new and unexpected, while hopefully still tending to what core audiences loved so much about the flagship show.”
“The Walking Dead is a show that made television history and attracted an army of passionate and highly engaged fans,” said Dan McDermott, president of original programming for AMC Networks and AMC Studios. “We see so much potential for a wide range of rich and compelling storytelling in this world, and the episodic anthology format of Tales of the Walking Dead will give us the flexibility to entertain existing fans and also offer an entry point for new viewers, especially on streaming platforms. We have seen the appeal of this format in television classics like The Twilight Zone and, more recently,Black Mirror, and are excited to engage with fans in this new way, against the backdrop of this very unique and engrossing world.”
Scott M. Gimple, who acted as showrunner on The Walking Dead before becoming chief content officer for the whole franchise, added, “This series, more than any other in the Walking Dead Universe, runs on new voices, perspectives, and ideas — bringing to life stories unlike any we’ve told before. I’m thrilled to be Channing’s consigliere, helping in every way I can to make those new visions real for the best fans in TV.”
While Tales of the Walking Dead will begin a whole new chapter in the franchise, elsewhere it is more about closure with The Walking Dead having just ended the first part of its final season, and The Walking Dead: World Beyond also heading to its end with new episodes of its second and final season currently releasing each Sunday. Additionally,Fear The Walking Dead kicks off its seventh season this Sunday, October 17th.
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