A Film adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” comics is something that Scott M. Gimple, the showrunner of the TV series, gets asked about “every now and again.” When asked about it this time, he said, “I’m sure, one way or another, one day, it’ll happen.”
And everyone is focusing on the wrong aspect
But no one seems to be questioning exactly what a “Walking Dead” film would entail. It seems to be assumed that this will only happen when the show ends and it’s time to reboot Rick’s story with new actors and writers, in which case it’s a long time off (and I mean a very long time).
Currently in its seventh season, AMC has already renewed “The Walking Dead” for an eighth, and will continue to renew it for a ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, as long as the writers have stories to tell and the ratings continue to be high (still over ten million viewers every week). While the writers once said they plan up to twelve seasons, at their current rate, based on the amount of material they have left to adapt, they could continue well after twenty seasons, and Kirkman hasn’t stopped writing the comics, and doesn’t look like he’ll stop any time soon.
A potential film could follow a new set of characters during the walker apocalypse a la spinoff series “Fear the Walking Dead,” or possibly a prequel following the backstory of some popular minor characters before they joined the main group, such as Jesus.
It could also be the filmic equivalent of the “Walking Dead” companion novels that Kirkman writes to accompany his comic books.
Gimple thinks the film will be a reboot
Gimple sees a “Walking Dead” movie as a big screen reboot of the series, recasting all the roles with actors from other hit TV shows. Though his casting choices were jokes – “William Shatner as Rick,” “Edward James Olmos as Daryl,” “Matthew Fox as the Governor” – he may be serious about the prospect of a reboot film that recasts the beloved protagonists who we have come to know only as Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, et al.
