Yet Another 'Walking Dead' Spin-Off Is Coming To AMC
AMC refuses to let The Walking Dead die. Ratings for the zombie show have been in a steady decline, and yet AMC has plans to make Walking Dead movies featuring Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, as well as continue the Walking Dead spin-off Fear the Walking Dead. But even that's not enough. There is now yet another Walking Dead spin-off in active development. What's it about? AMC isn't saying, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say it involves zombies.
When The Walking Dead returned with new episodes this month, it's viewership was down 44%. That's a huge drop, but the series is also the only real hit AMC has right now – so they refuse to give up. At this point, it seems not even a head-shot could put this show down. Rather than just hold fast with what they have already, AMC is going to test their luck with yet another spin-off.
During AMC's quarterly earnings call (via Deadline), CEO Josh Sapan mentioned a second Walking Dead spin-off, and COO Ed Carroll added that this spin-off is in "active development." And just what will this spin-off focus on? AMC isn't telling, but Carroll added:
"We're not at a stage where we'll be announcing its plans to premiere...But we have hired creative people that have pitched story outlines. We feel very good about the development of that series. We're not in a position to talk about partnerships in terms of other territories or ancillary windows, other than that there's a healthy appetite for it and we've had a number of conversations with a lot of players in the space."
What the heck are you doing, AMC? The current Walking Dead spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead, failed to ever take off the same way the main show did. In fact, that series was drastically retooled for its most recent season, with hopes of starting fresh and attracting more viewers (it didn't work).
With that in mind, you have to wonder who AMC thinks a new spin-off would be for. The world of The Walking Dead is in a weird place right now. Stars Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan have both departed the main show, and Danai Gureria is about to significantly reduce her time on the series as well. At the same time, AMC wants to make some Walking Dead movies with Lincoln. And while all of this is going on, the ratings continue to decline. At the same time, I'm aware there are still die-hard fans of this show, and they'll likely lap up whatever AMC churns out.