The Walking Dead may introduce new shows that bring back dead characters (and not as zombies). The building out of the Walking Dead universe, which of course first came to TV screens back in 2010, began in earnest with AMC’s spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead in 2015. Despite diminished ratings for the flagship show, the universe continues to expand with more series and even a movie planned.
The latest small-screen Walking Dead spinoff is indeed set to debut later in 2020. Titled Walking Dead: World Beyond, the new show centers on a group of young survivors venturing out from their safe haven to test themselves against the zombie-infested world outside. Of course, there’s also a theatrical film coming up that will bring back Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes after the character dramatically exited the main series midway through season 9.
Speaking recently to EW, Walking Dead universe overseer Scott Gimple teased other possible future projects that could be very exciting for long time fans of the franchise, including ones that would revive lost characters. Gimple said:
We’re working on a big push of something I was working on originally and then I got much more focused on the shows in my first year on this job and developing World Beyond and getting the movie going. We really do want to come out with different TV formats, meaning shorter things, and then some event series, limited event series. I’m trying to get together a number of different things that we can show at different times during the year, and this focuses on characters we miss and we lost. It focuses on aspects of that new mythology. It focuses on stories that occur in our universe and have nothing to do with anything. Nothing to do with the shows or the movies, that are just these little zombie tales that happen in our world with our rules and our timeline but are just really great zombie stories, really great stories of the end of the world.
Indeed, The Walking Dead has killed off a lot of characters over the course of its now ten-year run, and no doubt fans could put together a huge list of the deceased they’d like to see come back. Characters like T-Dog, Jesus and Carl would certainly be at the top of such a list, as all those characters arguably were done a disservice by being prematurely killed off. Lost fan favorites who did get plenty of story, like Abraham and Glenn, would also surely be on there. It might also be fun to revisit a villain like The Governor, even though his story was thoroughly told on the show the first time around. Merle Dixon is another dead TWD character it might be interesting to see again, potentially alongside his brother Daryl. Fear the Walking Dead too has a laundry list of dead characters who could return, including former leads Madison, Nick and Travis.
Of course, all these ideas are contingent upon the actors in question wanting to come back for some kind of limited run show or one-off short. Glenn is probably not a great possibility, as Steven Yeun has indicted he has no desire to return to the universe. Abraham on the other hand would be a good bet as actor Michael Cudlitz remains in the TWD fold as a director. And Carl could make his way back as Chandler Riggs has indicated he would return (even though his exit from the show was somewhat ugly).
Indeed, it seems Scott Gimple and company don’t need much help when it comes to cooking up ideas for how to expand the Walking Dead franchise even further than it’s already been expanded. Of course, the question at some point becomes how much is too much when it comes to The Walking Dead? It seems AMC is hungry for more content at least for now, which could be great news for some beloved lost characters and their fans.
Source: EW