The Walking Dead showrunner says spin-off will be road show – Undead Walking

Although TheWalking Dead Carol and Daryl spin-off is still 3 years away, and we as yet dont have a title for it, we are starting to find out more about what direction the show is going to take.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, current TWD show-runner and future spin-off show-runner Angela Kang gave some insight into how long the show has been in the works, before its recent reveal.

Theres been talk for a long time about a Daryl/Carol spin-off, and so that was something that we were working on well in advance of the news about the ending of the series.

She further explained that the new spin-off is going to feel very different from The Walking Dead, and will be telling different stories in a very different style.

Theyre going to be off on a different journey, and that shows going to feel hopefully a little tonally fresh. Theyre just in a different stage of their lives and its more of a road show, which I think will be really fun.

The description of the spin-off as a road show is something that was expanded on by Norman Reedus, when he also talked to the press this week, including Den of Geek.

Its a different type of a show. Its about the two of us going to see whos left in the world. I was a big fan of TV shows when I was a kid like Kung Fu or Billy Jack, where you have a character whos roaming the Earth and he gets into new situations, but when they leave, they change the tone of the environment by just being themselves passing through.

Reedus description confirms the shows format as the walk the earth trope a genre I mentioned in a previous article whilst speculating which direction the show would take.

As well as Kung Fu, the format was the basis of huge shows such as The Incredible Hulk and Knightrider, and even played a part in the massively successful X-Files where many of the monster of the week episodes fit into this category.

Its also a format that has a lot of specific benefits, as an excited Reedus continued.

Its an opportunity for us to get really good actors and really good writers who dont have to sign a seven-year contract. They come in for an episode or two. I think for a lot of actors, thats an exciting possibility, exciting circumstance. Im curious to have a revolving group of people.

Reedus also backed up Kangs comments about the different tone of the show, in quotes he gave to Digital Spy;

Itll be about hope, in a different way.

This hopeful tone and new format may be one of the reasons Reedus seems so stimulated and excited about the spin-off, but when he explained more about the origin of the show, the full reasons seem clearer.

Somebody asked me ages ago, How do you see this show ending? I said, Everybodys dying, and Im like, Melissa, get on the bike. We take off and we go see whos left.

So while Kang confirmed the series has been in the works some time, Reedus words may shed light on the origins of the idea. His working relationship and friendship with Melissa McBride (Carol) obviously playing a part.

Perhaps McBrides appearance on Reedus travel show Ride which saw the pair explore McBrides roots in Scotland helped cement the idea in both the actors and AMCs minds?

The spin-offs direction certainly fits that which Reedus has expressed in the past about his feelings on his character. And the post-apocalyptic cowboy and cowgirl on a bike, meeting new people, helping out and passing on their lived experience, is certainly a new way to tell the zombie tale.

This format, coupled with the new tone and lightness promised in other statements about the spin-off, ensure that the Carol/Daryl spin-off is absolutely going to carve its own niche in a world away from Alexandria and the Commonwealth.

It appears to be a well-constructed mix of the old elements of TWD that they know work with new twists and tweaks which all concerned in the production seemed excited about. It may be a new, hopeful and light corner of the TWD universe well be making space for in 2023.

Now, if only we knew what it was called.

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The Walking Dead showrunner says spin-off will be road show - Undead Walking