AMC is tripling down on the zombie post-apocalypse. Despite the fact that their popular series The Walking Dead struggled to keep its audience in season nine, the network announced third show set in the Walking Dead universe.
Although there aren’t many details about the project so far, AMC did reveal that the spinoff will premiere in 2020 with a 10-episode run. Matt Negrete, longtime writer for the original, will serve as a showrunner on the series while Walking Dead boss Scott M. Gimple will co-create and produce.
“I’m beyond excited to be a part of this new show set in The Walking Dead universe,” said Negrete in a statement. “Writing and producing for the original series has been the job of a lifetime and I’m honored to be working with Scott and all the fine Dead folks at AMC in this new capacity. I can’t wait for the fans of the franchise to see what we’ve been cooking up!”
The Walking Dead was once one of the most popular programs on television, averaging 14.38 million viewers in season five. Since then, however, the series saw a big decline in numbers and managed to attract only five million during the last season.
Fear the Walking Dead, the first spinoff that premiered in 2015, is also doing quite poorly with the finale of season four being watched by only two million people. Still, it looks like AMC believes that the zombie-loving audience will appreciate another expansion of the Walking Dead world.
“Showing audiences an unseen pocket of The Walking Dead universe steeped in a new mythology is a very cool way to celebrate a Decade of the Dead on TV and over 15 years of [creator] Robert Kirkman’s brilliant comic.” – added Gimple. “Matt Negrete is one of the best writer-producers in TWD’s long history, I’m thrilled to be working beside him to tell stories unlike we’ve seen before, taking our first step into an even larger world.”
