Scott Gimple, the overseer of The Walking Dead Universe, looks ahead to the future of the AMC franchise with an open mind. From big screen forays, to the return of mammoth 16-episode seasons, nothing is off the table.
The Walking Dead has been consistently the biggest, most popular zombie series on our screens for over a decade now. Despite the main series ending back in 2022, the wider franchise continues to live on through a slate of spinoff projects. So far, we’ve seen Daryl Dixon, which follows our titular hero Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) on their adventures in post-apocalyptic France; and in season 3, the duo will foray into England and later Spain. Plus, there’s the ongoing adventures of Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in Manhattan in Dead City. There’s been plenty of other shows, too, including Fear the Walking Dead, World Beyond, Tales of The Walking Dead, and The Ones Who Live.
Over the years, The Walking Dead Universe’s chief overseer Scott M. Gimple has teased his eagerness to take the franchise in myriad different directions. Of course, The Ones Who Live was originally meant to be a movie, before being re-worked as a TV show. In addition, if there’s one thing that fans have been calling for, it’s a return to 16-episode seasons. The format was a staple for the majority of the original show’s run. But with the arrival of the spinoffs, 6-episodes has become the regular duration. However, in a recent interview with The Direct, Gimple revealed that nothing is off the table in regard to future formats.
“I mean, I would just say different formats… They’re always in our minds and, you know, is it a six-hour, is it a two-hour, is it a… my dream would be another 16-hour-a-year series,” he said. “We’re talking about that. Feature films… probably less likely. But different ways that we do the show, we have to do it and we will.”
What’s more, he added that ideas are not scarce for potential spinoff ideas. We’re already seeing some globe-trotting adventures in Daryl Dixon, and it sounds like forays to unique places with different cultures is very much something the team is looking at. “There’s one that we’re working on that I’m very, very excited to see that we’ve never been before,” he teased. “But I’d aIso love to see it in Tokyo, I would love to see it in Africa, and I would love to see it in Iceland. I know that’s a weird one, but we want to spam the globe because there’s stories all over the globe.”
The future of The Walking Dead is super exciting. Globe-trotting is fun and all, although the general consensus is that fans are keen to see all the spinoffs converge, bringing back the original Walking Dead series for effectively ‘season 12’.
Up next is Dead City season 2, airing on May 4. For more Walking Dead updates and beyond, consider subscribing to our free, weekly newsletter:
