It looks as though The Walking Dead is going to be alive and kicking for many years to come. A new report claims that AMC is working on plans to expand the zombie thriller franchise with new TV movies that could turn into shows, with at least one of them taking place outside the United States.
During an investor conference earlier this week (as shared on Twitter), AMC’s chief executive officer Josh Sapan said the network had plans to continue The Walking Dead franchise “over the next decade-plus”, though he didn’t offer any specifics. Some took this to mean the network wanted to keep the flagship series, which is entering its ninth season this spring, for at least another 10 years.
That could very well be true, but a Bloomberg report suggests the network heads are planning on taking it even further. Here’s a quote from the piece:
The company, which owns the popular zombie-apocalypse series, plans to produce multiple movies and new TV shows based on the graphic novels that spawned the series, according to people familiar with the plans. AMC has talked to several large media companies about partnering on the projects, which collectively could cost several hundred million dollars.
Currently, AMC’s The Walking Dead universe contains the mainstage show, its post-episode recap series The Talking Dead, and prequel spinoff Fear the Walking Dead, which is currently wrapping up its fourth season.
But AMC doesn’t look to be stopping there. According to the report, AMC wants to make a bunch of movies for either a network or streaming service that have the potential to become TV shows of their own, “setting at least one series in another country” since The Walking Dead is popular overseas.
Producer Scott Gimple is reportedly overseeing development on these new storylines, but it isn’t clear when or if any of them will move forward. We reached out to AMC for comment but had not heard back at time of writing.
The Walking Dead returns with its ninth season, the last one to feature Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, on October 8.