The Walking Dead might be ending with its eleventh season, but the franchise it spawned will live on. When the news came that the flagship show would be ending in 2022, it was announced that two more spinoffs would follow it — a sequel series for Norman Reedus’ Daryl and Melissa McBride’s Carol and an anthology titled Tales of the Walking Dead. Now, AMC has officially greenlit the latter.
AMC has ordered a six-part first season which will go into production early next year. The anthology series will offer hour-long standalone episodes that focus on both new characters and familiar favorites from across the TWD universe. TWD and Fear the Walking Dead writer/producer Channing Powell is set to showrun this third spinoff, following Fear and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
Dan McDermott, president of original programming for AMC Networks and AMC Studios, voiced his excitement for Tales in a statement, even comparing it to iconic series such as The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror.
“The Walking Dead is a show that made television history and attracted an army of passionate and highly engaged fans,” said McDermott. “We see so much potential for a wide range of rich and compelling storytelling in this world, and the episodic anthology format of Tales of the Walking Dead will give us the flexibility to entertain existing fans and also offer an entry point for new viewers, especially on streaming platforms. We have seen the appeal of this format in television classics like The Twilight Zone and, more recently, Black Mirror, and are excited to engage with fans in this new way, against the backdrop of this very unique and engrossing world.”
Walking Dead‘s chief content officer Scott M. Gimple promised that Tales would spotlight “new voices, perspectives, and ideas” in his own statement.
“This series, more than any other in the Walking Dead Universe, runs on new voices, perspectives, and ideas — bringing to life stories unlike any we’ve told before,” Gimple said. “I’m thrilled to be Channing’s consigliere, helping in every way I can to make those new visions real for the best fans in TV.”
Finally, Powell spoke of how much Tales means to him given his own personal experience with the franchise.
“I started as a fan of The Walking Dead and have ended up as a showrunner of what will hopefully be one of its most unique spin-offs,” Powell shared. “That’s nuts and I’m so grateful to AMC and Scott for supporting me and my writers while we pushed, pulled and poked at the boundaries of this universe to bring you something new and unexpected, while hopefully still tending to what core audiences loved so much about the flagship show.”
There was never any doubt that AMC wasn’t going to move forward with this one, but it’s good to know it’s on the brink of commencing filming. With the freedom to hop around the world of TWD, both geographically and historically, Tales of the Walking Dead promises to be a unique addition to the ever-growing universe. Especially if talk of animated and musical episodes potentially happening actually comes to pass.
The Walking Dead just wrapped season 11A, but it’ll return for eight more episodes in February 2022.