Third Walking Dead Series Announced By AMC
It’s been an open secret for several months that AMC wants to expand the presence of The Walking Dead on their channel even further than what already exists, by launching a third series set in Robert Kirkman’s post-apocalyptic world. Today was the day they made an official announcement.
This yet-untitled third Walking Dead series will focus on two teenage female protagonists, representing “the first generation to come-of-age in the apocalypse as we know it.”
“We’re thrilled that the Dead will keep walking into a new corner of the post-apocalyptic world, a corner that will present stories and characters unlike any that The Walking Dead has dramatized thus far, and that is bound to excite one of the most passionate fanbases in television,” says David Madden, president of programming for AMC. Matt Negrete, the appointed showrunner for this new series, says “I’m honored to be working with Scott and all the fine Dead folks at AMC in this new capacity. I can’t wait for the fans of the franchise to see what we’ve been cooking up!”
We’d be lying if we claimed we didn’t have reservations about this. It’s not just the fact that the Walking Dead franchise isn’t as fresh as it once was — the most recent season of Fear and a couple of episodes in the most recent season proved there is still inspiration here where you can find it. The big problem is, Walking Dead’s track record with the youth is terrible.
Some of TWD’s most annoying and grating characters have been teenagers. Junkie Nick from FTWD puttered around for three seasons. The most recent example was Henry from TWD Season 9, who made one dumb decision after another, and mercifully was given the Game of Thrones “head on a spike” fate in the end. We don’t want an entire series of naive jerks basing every decision on their hormones and blindly walking directly into danger. No bueno.
Ten episodes have been ordered for Season One. When the series premieres on AMC, the Walking Dead franchise will have been on television for ten years. That’s scarier than any zombie.