The Walking Dead would have been a very different show if Robert Kirkman had lost his mind and gave the rights to NBC.
According to Variety , The Walking Dead Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd told a masterclass at the Edinburgh International TV Festival an NBC executive asked Kirkman if he was willing to do a show without the zombies.
Apparently NBC thought The Walking Dead would have a better premise if the show was a detective series, where the leads solve a zombie-related crime a week. Well, that’s not even close to Kirkman’s comics. Who would’ve been the leads, Rick and Shane? Eventually we find out Shane is sleeping with Lori and Carl might not be his?
Let’s be grateful to AMC for picking up The Walking Dead . Now fans can obsess over the introduction of Negan and the inevitable death of one of their favorite characters. The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about switching up the big villain introduction so comic book readers can experience Negan in a new way.
“As I’ve said a lot of times, it’s a remix,” Gimple told EW . “That’s something we proved when I started on the show and [comic creator Robert Kirkman] and I were sitting in the room and I was a writer and producer. I was always wanting to hew as close to the comics as possible, and Robert was wanting to deviate to provide the readers with a new experience.”
Gimple continued , “And over the years, I integrated it with my own thinking, as long as we fulfill the spirit of the comic story. We are looking to generate the same emotions and have a very direct interpretation of moments in the book — even if it’s completely different — but still achieving the comic story. That’s what I’ve followed all these years, and at the end of Season 6, it’s very much in line with that.”
The Walking Dead Season 7 premieres Oct. 23 on AMC.
