‘The Walking Dead’ universe survives on new television

When Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead in 2018, it was announced that the adventures of his character Rick Grimes — until then the show’s main character — would continue in three films. That never happened, and those three feature-length films ended up being transformed into the six-part series premiering on AMC+ on Monday, February 26. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live follows the adventures of Rick and Michonne, the zombie apocalypse survivor played by Danai Gurira. Those who watched the original series know that their love story remained incomplete and that she left in search of him: now they will try to carry on with their relationship while once again trying to survive in a hostile world where the main threat is not the half-dead but the living.

The Ones Who Live is the sixth (and, in principle, last) Walking Dead spin-off series (2010-2022) to premiere. The zombie television universe that was born from the mind of Robert Kirkman in comic book form is only growing. First there was Fear the Walking Dead, then World Beyond. Tales of the Walking Dead followed, as well as the three series focused on the original show’s main characters: Dead City (with Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Daryl Dixon (with Norman Reedus) and The Ones Who Live.

The show’s characters have seen how the television industry has changed so much around them that it has even redefined the fictional universe. As opposed to the 16-episode seasons common when The Walking Dead reigned supreme in the ratings — it became the most watched series in American television even when broadcast on a cable channel — the spin-off series feature stories centered on fewer characters, with a smaller universe and only six episodes per season.

Scott M. Gimple, 52, is responsible for coordinating the entire Walking Dead universe, as well as the co-creator of The Ones Who Live. The New Jersey native started on the original series in its second season, and he was its top executive during its most successful years. In a video call conversation with EL PAÍS, he analyzes how changes in the industry and in the consumption of audiovisual content have influenced the course of the franchise. “We made 16 episodes a year and that implied a very different relationship with the audience, who had an appointment on Sundays to watch the series for 16 weeks. It’s like meeting someone every Sunday for 16 weeks, you’re building a relationship. It’s different with these new series. We have six episodes of different shows, and the form determines the content. It’s a different way of storytelling, more restrained, there’s less choice to take root. The deviations that I loved to do, going with one character or focusing on one corner of that universe… Now it’s more complicated to do, or you have to approach it as a different series. But it’s also very interesting,” the writer and producer says.

One of many challenges that have sprung up around The Walking Dead series is giving them an identity of their own while still making it clear that they belong to the same universe. “I didn’t want them to look like they’re all the same series, I wanted them to be very, very different,” Gimple says. In The Ones Who Live, the common thread is Rick and Michonne’s “deep, intense, crazy, epic” love story. Gimple acknowledges that, in many respects, The Ones Who Live is arguably the story that is most continuous with the original series, even though the situation in which its protagonists find themselves is very different.

Another challenge will be getting audiences to care about characters they haven’t seen since 2018 (for Rick) and since 2020 (for Michonne) and continuing to capture the attention of an audience that has followed the fate of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse on TV for nearly fifteen years. Has that been an added difficulty for the writers? “Actually, I think it’s the other way around. Where has Rick been all this time, what has he done, how do we portray all that and how do we do that without showing every single thing he’s been through? He’s a different person now, and in some ways, it’s been like writing a whole new character because he’s not the man he was then,” Gimple reflects.

Actors Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira are co-creators and executive producers of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. According to Gimple, their involvement has been total and absolute in all phases of production, from the months of meetings preparing the structure, mapping the plot and plot twists, to controlling budgets, hiring the crew, scouting locations... “It was like playing in a band, we covered for each other. They helped with post-production, with editing, with marketing... There were times when we had to split up to take care of different things,” Gimple says. “They’ve been with these characters for so long that I understand why they wanted to grab the bull by the horns and take it where they wanted to take it.”

The future of zombies is assured in the short term. Dead City and Daryl Dixon have already been renewed for their second seasons, and it has not been ruled out that The Ones Who Live could also continue. Scott M. Gimple even has a crossover of the main characters of the three in mind, so that their characters can reunite. “That’s my hope and my dream and what I’m working toward. But as you’ve seen with the changes in this series, who knows what will happen. But yes, it’s what I’m trying to do one way or another.” That begs the question: how much longer can zombies last on TV? The franchise’s top man answers: “Robert Kirkman sold The Walking Dead as a zombie movie that never ends. I’m doing my best to deliver on that.”

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