Robot Chicken’s Walking Dead Special Is a Parody Done With Love – Screen Rant

Robot Chicken writer Breckin Meyer and co-creator Matthew Senreich say the sketch shows upcoming The Walking Dead special is parody done from a special place in their hearts. The long-running Adult Swim show, which pokes fun at most everything in the pop culture vernacular, has yet to tackle the hugely popular AMC series head on and lets just say, the Robot Chicken team is super excited to jump right into that walker pool heading into the shows newseason.

AtSDCC 2017, Meyer and Senreich talkedwith Screen Rant about the upcoming season, including the special Walking Dead episode, which they said had the full support from showrunner Scott Gimple and creator Robert Kirkman. In fact, Senreich said he and Kirkman had been friends for years, stemming from their early days in comics, and Kirkman had recently wondered why Senreich had yet to parody The Walking Dead. A Robot Chicken short was thus born.

Meyer, however, is the one probably the most jazzed to be doing a Walking Dead special since he is a massive fan of the show. The Franklin & Bash actor has been with Robot Chicken pretty much since the beginning, writing and providing many of the voices, including Boba Fett, Superman and many more. When he heard they might be doing Walking Dead, he said he asked right away to be a part of it because he knew his love for series would come through in the parody. He explained:

Its similar to what we do withStar Wars, which is lampooning and doing parody, but its also done with this giant love for it. I mean there are things Im not a huge fan of. I dont knowStar Trekall that well. Ive seen the movies, never seen an episode of the show. So when we lampoonStar Trek, or I write something, its like, What do phasers do, what could they do thats funny? But withThe Walking Dead, I love this show, so I cant wait to play with Negan. Im dying to play with what Jeffrey [Dean Morgan] has been doing with Negan.

Meyer wasnt the only one pumped to do The Walking Dead and he also had a little competition with Robot Chicken co-creator Seth Green in who would do which voice:

Initially, Seth and I were battling with each other about who gets to do Rick. I mean, literally both of us were sitting there going, Carl! over and over again. This was IF we dont get the real guys, which of course we really wanted to get.

Then we f**king got everybody from the show! So we got to donothing, except some peripheral characters. I laid claim to Negan. That was like the modern-day Boba Fett for me, I wanted to do Negan. But then we got Jeffrey Dean, and Im like, Okay, hes pretty good at it. But, likeStar Wars, we are just such big fans of the show. I want to know what happened after. When Negan and Im not spoiling it killed Glenn, theres that thought, What happened right after? I mean, someone had to clean it up. Or that car ride home had to be awful. Someone tries to turn the radio one, and theyre like, No, not right now.'

Ultimately, Meyer believes most of the things they do on Robot Chicken comes from their love for the properties, like Star Wars:

So its done out of love. I think thats why George Lucas liked our show because he knew. People have lampooned George and Georges tinkering with his movies20 years later, evenSouth Parkdid it. But I think he could tell with our stuff and the Emperor stuff, these guys get it. And its fun. They are actually enjoying the whole thing.

Season 9 ofRobotChicken is said to be coming soon, but no premiere date has been announced.The Walking Dead season 8 premieres Sunday, October 22 on AMC.

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Robot Chicken's Walking Dead Special Is a Parody Done With Love - Screen Rant