Get ready for a heck of a lot of The Walking Dead in 2020. Due to AMC pushing hard to expand the franchise in new ways next year, it’s been announced that the TWD universe will be on air for all but 10 Sundays of the coming 12 months.
In an AMC conference call this Thursday, the network’s chief operating officer Ed Carroll revealed that their new strategy for the brand allows AMC to deliver just over “40 Sundays of original zombie world premieres” in 2020. In Carroll’s words,” that’s a consistency that’s not happened before.”
So, how does this high number of Sundays work out? Well, that includes both the second half of The Walking Dead season 10 in the spring and then the first half of season 11 towards the end of the year. Fear the Walking Dead will be reaching its sixth season in the summer, meanwhile, and what’s more, the still untitled third Walking Dead series will debut in January.
So, let’s do the math. That’s 16 episodes of the flagship show that started it all. 16 episodes of Fear and 10 episodes of the third series. All together that accounts for 42 Sundays of the year.
And, of course, you might spend one of those TWD-less Sundays at the movies watching the upcoming opening installment in the planned trilogy of films starring Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes. The franchise’s first cinematic spinoff is due to arrive in 2020, too, though it’s yet to be given a release date.
All in all, The Walking Dead might be reaching its eleventh season on the air, with the comic books it’s based on now kaput, but there’s still a long lifespan yet for the franchise. And 2020 could well be the best year so far to be a fan.
