As The Walking Dead wraps up its sixth season, its shows no signs of stopping. The zombie apocalypse drama continues to be one of the most popular shows on television, and there are always new characters and settings to keep the story evolving. Even so, you have to wonder: How much longer can it go?
At WonderCon in Los Angeles this past weekend, current showrunner Scott M. Gimple addressed this question. He was on a TV Guide panel along with fellow showrunners Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers), Paul Scheer (Party Over Here), Ali Adler (Supergirl), Melissa Rosenberg (Jessica Jones) and Craig DiGregorio (Ash vs. Evil Dead).
The conversation started when Lindelof was asked about ending The Leftovers after its third season (and Lost after its sixth). “Coming from the fan perspective, I just want to know how thick the book is before I pick it up,” Lindelof said. “The idea of having to read a book and every time you put it down you don’t know how many chapters are left is not as exciting as knowing ‘Oh my God, I’m nearing the end.’” He then threw it to Gimple by saying “That said, I will literally watch The Walking Dead for another 20 years.”
Gimple added his thoughts. “With The Walking Dead …the best metric for me, just as a reader of the book, it’s going on and on and I’m enjoying it. Robert [Kirkman] is building in an evolving world and we’re trying to fulfil its story… Robert reinvents that story over and over and we’re following the story’s lead.”
Which is to say, Gimple has no interest in telling us how many chapters are left. In fact, he probably doesn’t even know. A new issue of Kirkman’s comic gets published every month and until that stops — or ratings drop — odds are we’ll still be watching The Walking Dead.
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22 responses to “How Much Longer Will The Walking Dead Be On The Air?”
In classic American T.V fashion they continue it long enough to see ratings drop, slap an ending on it and move on to the next thing. I just hope they kill off Rick or Daryl just so i can see the fanboy/girls riot.
I haven’t read the comics at all but I believe the show’s still ‘mostly’ following its story, so I wouldn’t expect Rick to die anytime soon as he’s the endless main character there. Daryl is always possible though as IIRC, he was created for the show and just happened to become a hit.
Rick Grimes for president.
FU2016!
He’d be too busy planting potatoes or tomatoes.
Kirkman did say he wants to get to 200 issues, then he’ll likely call it a day, by that point he’s been going *around* 15 years on TWD comic. Plus,
with the timejump in the comic, Ricks almost an old man and we’re seeing Carl entering his late teens, so at some point the ‘world’ will be handed off to him.Honestly, the TV show feels like it’s only just getting going, weird to say after six seasons, but with the screwups of the first 3 seasons and Gimple rescuiing it from season 4 onwards,Negan only JUST coming into it (he provides a MASSIVE arc of storyline that changes *EVERYTHING*…)we’re going to see a very, very different show as of next year.Nothing major in those spoiler tags, just incase you know…
It don’t matter, it’s already done it’s most important work: in 2010 it proved gruesome adult fantasy was viable on TV. That’s a year before GoT showed up.
6 years on, production companies are willing to back a whole heap of cool/geek stuff for TV. On the bell curve of competency, I’d say tWD is maybe three-quarters along…but it’s a big part of the reason everything to the right of it exists.
Yep indeed. And you saw that *exact* effect the very next season of Breaking Bad, when they went from obscure look at goop in a bathtub to Walt full on running over two guys with his prius or whatever it was, and seeing the broken and bloody on the ground. Like you said, it’s a big part, if not THE reason everything exists that is currently pushing the boundaries of everything.
While shows like The Wire, Sopranos, The Shield and Oz pioneered the 10 – 13 episode format for American TV, The Walking Dead pioneered the whole pushing the boundaries to (I hate this term) ‘the next level’ in terms of acceptable levels of gore and content.
If only they could drop an F Bomb lol.
If negan comes in and doesn’t drop an f bomb i’m going to be disappointed. Didn’t the show runners say earlier this year they’re going to keep the show running as long as they can, even after Rick has gone? Also….spoilers?…..
would be great for Daryl to get Lucilled so it has the same impact as Glenn in the comics, but after this week’s ending (and the fake out earlier in the season) I’m thinking Glenn’s gonna get it
Daryl’s only been shot in the shoulder, I’m 99% positive. There’s been promo shots of him gagged infront of Negan already along with others. Plus they wouldn’t kill such a major character in such a huge way.They’ve had *all* the characters have fakeout moments now, Daryl, Glenn, Carol, even Rick, they’ve all had close calls. Abraham was meant to be crossbowed but they switched that around and Dwight shot the doctor for instance. So I seriously don’t think they’ll kill Glenn at this point, I’m betting Daryl gets to meet Lucille personally…
But if what I read is true… and this guy on reddit has been right 15 for 15 episodes so far…
I couldn’t post that on Kotaku… that’d be too mean 🙂
tease! probably best I don’t find out if he’s right all the time (michonne right?) You’re correct about all the fakeouts, i just thought Glenns was a bit extra since it went over a few episodes. I was surprised about the Abraham switch too. I don’t think they’ll do it due to expenses but it would be great for Rick to finally lose his arm via negan, I think it’s kind of important in the future that he’s crippled in his handing over the reigns
Well let’s just say this is going to be the biggest, nastiest cliffhanger TWD has done so far and people are going to be chomping at the bit for 7.1…
not much longer i hope. show is painfully boring. first 2 seasons were ok.
First of all, if it’s painfully boring why are you watching? second, the second season is widely classed as the worst.
Yes I find it painfully boring and I still watch it.
Wtf is wrong with you why would I still watch it if I thought it was painfully boring.
You are claiming it’s boring and now claiming you don’t even watch it, if it’s true that you don’t watch it then you don’t know if it’s boring or not and you are just being a troll or an idiot.
How stupid do you have to be? Have you been sitting on that since March man? How difficult is it to understand that I used to watch it, thought it was boring, so I stopped watching it? I even used the word still in there. Good lord.
Jesus christ mate, go back to school.
Lots of people seem to love season 6 but I am (finally) struggling to maintain interest. For me they have selectively nerfed the zombies (AKA walkers, biters, roamers, rotters, etc) to a point where it’s ridiculous – if one of the main characters encounters walkers they are about as threatening as a mosquito and dispatched about as easily, while expendable characters are frequently overpowered and literally torn apart by them.
Of course it’s just a fictional story – and one based off a comic no less – but it’s hard to suspend disbelief when there have been so many instances of lazy writing and extreme plot armour for favourites (Glen, dumpster).
No one’s making you watch it, so why keep watching if you’re not enjoying it?
Also, funny how you say it’s boring but you found season 2 okay, considering it’s one of the slowest seasons of the show.
Edit: Was meant to be a reply to @zeitxgeist
why would you assume that i still watch it if i find it painfully boring.
The Negan story arc goes on for a long time in the comics, so there is atleast 2 seasons of Negan storyline.
Will be interesting if they do the Whispers storylineHopefully long enough for ‘fear the walking dead’ characters to meet up with ‘the walking dead’ ones.