Over the weekend, the big news in the world of The Walking Dead was the announcement by AMC that Angela Kang is taking over as showrunner for the series, replacing Scott Gimple. I am a huge fan of Kang’s — in fact, I lobbied for her to take over as Fear the Walking Dead showrunner three years ago — and I am legitimately excited about her stewardship as the fourth showrunner of The Walking Dead.
What’s getting less attention, however, is the promotion of Scott Gimple, who will now oversee the entire The Walking Dead universe. For those wondering, this is not an instance of demotion by promotion. The moves that have been made in recent months over on AMC suggest that Gimple’s new position could grow into something akin to that of Kevin Feige over on Marvel: Someone tasked with overseeing all the properties and ensuring they work together seamlessly.
AMC is clearly determined to reinvent Fear the Walking Dead and make it more relevant than ever. They’re bringing one of the original — and most popular — characters from The Walking Dead and adding him to Fear and beefing up the cast with some familiar and talented actors, including Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman, and Maggie Grace. There is also confirmation that Danay Garcia — who plays Luciana — will return in season four. With two new showunners, AMC clearly wants to creatively reboot the already improved Fear the Walking Dead and bring back many of The Walking Dead fans who have abandoned it over the years.
Those fans would be wise to catch up on Fear (and season three arrives on Hulu on January 30th) because the third season was much improved, and the fourth season — which will premiere in April 15th — looks like it will be even better. My guess is, with Scott Gimple overseeing both shows, AMC has plans to use the two shows to promote each other, and Lennie James’ Morgan may not be the last character to crossover. In fact, with Gimple as Chief Content Officer, there may be additional properties and a future where The Walking Dead could expand its universe.
It’s a long ways off, but there’s even some potential that these two shows crossover in a bigger way. We mentioned last week that there’s community in Ohio in the future of The Walking Dead graphic novels called The Commonwealth that is home to over 50,000 survivors. We don’t know much about it yet, but there’s a possibility with a community that large that two series could come into contact with it at the same — or different — times. Even if the two series do not crossover in the traditional ways, there’s nothing to suggest that they could not encounter the same threats and even the same characters. Popular characters in the Commonwealth could potentially become characters in both series, and there’s even a possible future in which characters on Fear become enemies to characters on The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead universe could see its own small-screen equivalent of The Avengers.
Scott Gimple has been with the series since season two and he’s been the showrunner for the last five seasons. They gave him the greenlight to shake up the series in a big way by killing off Carl, and he has big plans for the future of the series without Carl. Those plans may very well include additional shake-ups, as well as cross-promotions with Fear the Walking Dead and additional spin-off characters. We’re not privy to those details, but AMC is clearly intent on breathing new life not just into The Walking Dead but the entire universe. Indeed, when AMC launched Fear the Walking Dead, they impressed upon viewers how “different” and independent that series was. These new changes, however, suggest that they no longer want it to be an independent, stand-alone series, but more of an extension of The Walking Dead, and that makes Fear a more necessary watch than ever for The Walking Dead fans. And the best news of all is that, creatively speaking, Fear the Walking Dead is now as good — or better — than the parent series.
Have you listened to the TV Avalanche podcast with Alan Sepinwall and Brian Grubb? Subscribe on iTunes or Google.
