It’s the nature of the business: All good TV shows must come to an end. Well, unless that show isThe Walking Dead, apparently.
In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan said he believes the style and format of the hit zombie survival series makes it a different animal when compared to other more traditional TV shows.
Because of that, he believes the series could actually stay on forever and just keep following survivors as they make their way through the post-apocalypse, year in and year out. Seriously:
“We hope that zombies live forever and we’ve just begun to find out what the post-apocalyptic world is like, so that we’ll be sitting here at the Barclays conference in 2022 discussing the fact that Walking Dead is not over."
It’s an interesting thought, and you have to admit that Walking Dead has actually thrived on reinvention over its first three seasons. Just look at the cast list, and you can count on one hand how many of the surviving characters have actually been around since the pilot. The rest? All newbies who have been added to the mix along the way.
Not only does it give you new characters to follow, but it also keeps the costs down, since the studio doesn't have to keep paying more in contract negotiations to bring back the same actors for several seasons. But could the show actually work without any of the original cast? That's a tough sell.
On the other hand, the comic-book series it's based on is 110 issues deep and has been rolling along since 2003. So long as creator Robert Kirkman can balance the comic and the TV series, he could feasibly have several more seasons of story left to tell.
But do you think the TV-watching public will still be clamoring for more Walking Dead a decade from now? Do you believe a scripted show can make it that long without completely losing what made it fun to begin with?
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
Posts
