‘The Walking Dead’ Fires Entire Writing Staff

The Walking Dead director Frank Darabont has fired the entire writing staff of the AMC series despite the show’s high ratings.

For the second season of the series, Darabont plans on using freelancers to script the 13 episodes already ordered by AMC. It is speculated that he could encounter some resistance from members of the Writers Guild. While some writer turnover is expected between seasons, entire overhauls is not commonplace.

The Walking Dead did something incredible in its first season, it not only achieved praise among fans and critics of the genre, but it also gathered interested from people who did not care for the genre, such as myself. It was the story and imagery that drew us all in, and the writing that kept us. Darabont wrote the pilot and second episode of the first season, and then co-wrote/re-wrote the remaining four. Perhaps the writing team just wasn’t up to par, and Darabont didn’t want to have re-write all of season 2? I’m sure there’s probably more to this than is currently being let on.

Currently, Torchwood is the only other series on the air right now that does not have a writing staff on-board. Do you think The Walking Dead will be able to continue with high ratings with freelancers holding the reigns? Sound off below in our comment section!

On a happier note, AMC is planning to release the first season on DVD and Blu-ray in Spring 2011 through Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Responses

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  1. Sounds to me like he was pretty much carrying the entire show by both directing as well as writing or re-writing a bunch of the scripts. Maybe he wants to try out freelance writers for a while and decide who is up to par before hiring an official staff.

    OK, The Walking Dead on Blu-Ray is going to be so cool. I am really excited for that!

    P.S. – Has anybody else been entering the code word each week to get a walk-on zombie role? How cool would that be?

  2. I actually have a friend who is a zombie on the show. They held an open casting call for zombies here in Atlanta last summer. I think our area is kinda known for people loving zombies. Zombieland filmed here also. 🙂 But yeah that would be awesome to win that. I’d love to see you on there!

  3. That’s cool! What episode were they in and can you see them/point them out? Will you try if they return to Atlanta next year? I have heard they have not committed yet and since the show storyline seems to be moving away from Atlanta I was wondering if they would return.

  4. I was lead to believe they would return, but I haven’t heard for sure. I didn’t notice my friend in the episodes, I need to ask her if she recognized herself in the episodes. I know she was in the pilot and then 1 or 2 other episodes at least. It’s pretty hard to recognize people you know when they’re all done in zombie makeup. lol 🙂 I doubt I will try out for a zombie role, but I’d love to visit set and do a feature for FanBolt. I tried to do that in Season 1 but they weren’t letting press visit. 🙁

  5. Hope this doesn’t spell trouble for the show! Love it! If it were filmed anywhere near Detroit I would jump all over trying to win the “Stumble on roll” as a Zombie. Would be the thrill of a lifetime!

  6. Detroit has a lot of things filming there too I believe. 🙂 They have some of the same tax incentives for filming that drew Walking Dead to Atlanta. But about the writers, I don’t have a good feeling about firing the staff. I feel like there is more to this than AMC and other responsible parties are currently letting on to the media.

  7. I don’t think this is necessarily as big a deal as it seems. Darabont wrote 4 of the 6 episodes of season one, farmed one out, and a staff writer wrote another. And I think the graphic novel creator pitched in too. So it’s not like he’s blaming them for anything.

  8. Well he wrote the first 2 episodes… then co-wrote/rewrote 4 of those 6 episodes, so if he was happy with what the writers were doing I don’t think their would have been a need to rewrite. 🙂 But hopefully you’re right and it’s not as big of a deal as it seems. As long as the writing quality stays as good then I’ll be happy.