A script already exists for a musical episode of Tales of the Walking Dead, though it will not be appearing in season 1. Tales is one of many planned spin-offs to the massively popular post-apocalyptic drama The Walking Dead, which premiered on AMC in 2010 and will air its series finale on November 20, 2022. While the spin-offs Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond have already premiered (World Beyond actually concluded in 2021), the franchise will split into even more branches, with new series following the exploits of characters including Rick and Michonne, Daryl (in a show that originally also featured Carol before actress Melissa McBride dropped out of the series), and former enemies Maggie and Negan.
Tales of the Walking Dead will be the next spinoff to hit the screen, with its premiere episode coming to AMC on August 14, 2022. The series will be an anthology, with each of season 1's six episodes focusing on a different story from within the universe of The Walking Dead. So far, only one returning character has been officially confirmed - Samantha Morton's Alpha - but the cast includes a heap of new original characters played by an interesting ensemble that includes Terry Crews, Olivia Munn, Parker Posey, Jillian Bell, Poppy Liu, Anthony Edwards, Jessie T. Usher, Embeth Davidtz, Daniella Pineda, and Danny Ramirez.
EW recently spoke to Tales of the Walking Dead showrunner Channing Powell about what fans might be able to expect from the series. As the show will be pushing the genre and tone of the franchise farther than it has before, with certain episodes that are more overtly comedic or supernatural, she revealed that they even have a completed script for a potential musical episode. While that episode was not filmed for season 1 due to time and budget constraints, she says that "should we get a season 2 or 3, I'm going to push for that one if I can." Read her full quote below:
We may be doing different formats and possibility utilizing animation, music, different mediums. We want to surprise people every week with what they will be getting.
[The musical episode is] written! We have a whole script for it. Should we get a season 2 or 3, I'm going to push for that one if I can. It lives in my heart and in my mind.
Musical episodes of television series aren't exactly uncommon, as shows as wide-ranging as Grey's Anatomy, Psych, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Scrubs have all dabbled in the format. Even zombie musicals have been attempted before, both onstage with the cinematic adaptations Evil Dead: The Musical and Re-Animator: The Musical, and on-screen in the Scottish Christmas zombie comedy Anna and the Apocalypse, which came out in 2017. However, Tales of the Walking Dead would be the most mainstream project to ever attempt such a thing.
On top of that, a Tales of the Walking Dead musical episode would be a huge departure from the typical tone of The Walking Dead. The series and its existing spin-offs haven't shied away from lighter moments, but they tend to be unrelentingly grim in the way they depict life following the zombie apocalypse, as can be imagined. The new series will certainly have to come up with a good in-universe reason for people to be singing and dancing in order to avoid breaking the reality of the universe entirely, but the fact that it's an anthology will allow them to indulge without going overboard, allowing the episode to speak - or rather, sing - for itself.
Source: EW