The Walking Dead established itself as a brilliant franchise, establishing itself firmly with several spinoffs after the flagship series wrapped its lengthy run. Scott Gimple helped lead the flagship series, serving as both an executive producer and showrunner. Still attached to the franchise presently, leading a number of its spinoffs, Gimple has teased the prospect of seeing the franchise returning to the original episode count. Beyond the flagship series, the franchise also includes some of the following titles: The Walking Dead: Dead City, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
Gimple attended Multicon and, during a conversation with The Direct, the showrunner was asked about the future of The Walking Dead franchise beyond the current running spiinoffs. Gimple reveals that while the franchise is "less likely" to return to previous plans regarding feature films. The showrunner confirms that there are currently talks regarding returning the franchise to the flagship series' long-form episode count in its current running spinoffs. Gimple's comments read:
"I mean, I would just say different formats... They're always in our minds and, you know, is it a six-hour, is it a two-hour, is it a... my dream would be another 16-hour-a-year series. We're talking about that. Feature films... probably less likely. But different ways that we do the show, we have to do it and we will."
Besides the aforementioned spinoffs, the franchise also includes More Tales from the Walking Dead Universe, which last received an update in April 2023. On average, the flagship series offered 16-episode seasons, with its first season kicking off with just six episodes. It wrapped its run with eleven seasons and 177 episodes. The franchise's first spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead, which was a West Coast-set prequel, followed a similar path, ending its run with a total of 113 episodes in eight seasons. Other spinoffs in the franchise have since employed shorter episode counts season-to-season. The upcoming second season of Dead City the longest so far of the recent installments with eight episodes.
Gimple Would Want to See Even More 'The Walking Dead' Projects
The Walking Dead franchise is proving a popular saying of the Ironborn to be true as the undead from the franchise continue to dominate television. Besides the currently running shows, Gimple previously revealed plans that will see the franchise expand even further, saying:
"There's one that we're working on that I'm very, very excited to see that we've never been before. But I'd aIso love to see it in Tokyo, I would love to see it in Africa, and I would love to see it in Iceland. I know that's a weird one, but we want to spam the globe because there's stories all over the globe."
Stay tuned to Collider for more information about The Walking Dead and the other off-shoots to come from the zombie-filled universe.
