With the whole entertainment industry basically coming to a standstill across the board, The Walking Dead franchise is one of the many TV universes being badly hit by the current pandemic. We’ve known since earlier this month that work on TWD season 11 has been pushed back, with filming on Fear the Walking Dead season 6 also halted. Likewise, The Walking Dead: Worlds Beyond will now no longer air in April as originally planned.
Perhaps the most infuriating delay to fans is that the season 10 finale, intended for a mid-April broadcast, has now been pulled from the schedules due to the health crisis making it impossible to complete post-production work on time. AMC has currently given no specific dates for when we can expect any of the three series to resume or when we can expect the finale to air.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, however, chief content officer Scott M. Gimple has spoken plainly about what’s going on with The Walking Dead. He explained that things are changing all the time, but he and the team are just trying to comply with “advice from the government” and ensure “everyone is healthy and safe.”
“Like everyone else, once we’re given the all clear, we’re ready to roar back. Just like with everybody else, it’s this weird moment of pause. There are so many people who work on these shows. Between the three shows, we’re talking about [numbering] in the thousands. We want everyone safe and healthy. That’s the deal. We all have to pull together to make sure everyone is safe and healthy.”
The good news is that writing is continuing across all the shows as the writers are obviously able to continue that remotely as normal. So, some progress is being made with the upcoming seasons.
“All the shows are in some degree or another of writing. Fear the Walking Dead didn’t have a ton of writing left, but a good amount of it. We’re cooking on [writing The Walking Dead] Season 11,” Gimple said. “People were starting to peel off and write their scripts, and that’s moving along. Post can work remotely to a degree. There’s a good amount of work on all of the shows that needed to be done in rooms, and we’re still doing that, just not together.”
We’ve currently got two more episodes to go before the imposed hiatus is upon us. However, Gimple promises that there are plans in motion to get some fun TWD content going up online to give fans something to enjoy.
“We’re kicking around some ideas to try and have some Walking Dead supportive fun for people stuck at home, to help keep people’s spirits up. Hopefully we’ll have more news about that soon.”
So, stay tuned for more on that, and be sure to catch The Walking Dead 10×14 “Look at the Flowers” this Sunday on AMC.