The Walking Dead took television by storm courtesy of AMC on Halloween 2010. The show, which is based on a series of graphic novels by Cliff Rathburn, Robert Kirkman, and Charlie Adlard, initially follows Rick Grimes and his crew as they attempt to navigate a zombie-ridden post-apocalyptic world. The show peaked at an all-time high of 17.29 million views in its fifth season, with viewership progressively dropping through to its final season.
The show's viewership waxed and waned throughout the remainder of its run time on AMC, but this did not stop the network from creating and executing a spinoff series, Fear the Walking Dead, to capitalize off The Walking Dead's success. AMC appears to have big plans for the franchise. As The Walking Dead winds down, Fear the Walking Dead appears to still be going strong, with additional storylines set to be released in the near future in the form of additional shows and movies.
The Walking Dead Universe Has Many Stories Ready For Fans
According to IMDb, Fear the Walking Dead is the first spin-off for the popular zombie series, initially airing on AMC in 2015. This show follows the events of the zombie infection on the West Coast of the United States, which are happening just before and during the seasons of its parent show.
Right after Fear the Walking Dead's first season, AMC released a miniseries called Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462, which further details the events of the zombie apocalypse from the perspective of a plane filled with passengers on their way to LAX as an outbreak occurs on the flight.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond was introduced in 2020 and ran for two seasons. According to Insider, this limited series helps further explain the Civic Republic Army and allegedly connects to the Rick Grimes series.
Tales of The Walking Dead is the franchise's first anthology series AMC has introduced and features the likes of Terry Crews, Olivia Munn, and Parker Pose and aims to focus on the story of both old and new characters as they attempt to navigate the world of the infected at different points of the apocalypse.
AMC shows no signs of slowing down in 2023, with additional projects in the works including The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon, additional seasons of Tales of the Walking Dead, and the highly anticipated The Walking Dead: Dead City Is Coming, a spinoff centered around the unlikely pairing that is Negan and Maggie.
Do The Movie Cancelation And Low Viewership Signal Bad News For The Franchise?
The Walking Dead's final season has plenty of hype around it, especially considering that a story that many have been following for over a decade is finally coming to an end.
Although, it does appear that the show is not living up to its former glory, as it was never able to capture the double-digit million views it had in its glory days.
Shortly after The Walking Dead's ninth season, a concept for a The Walking Dead film was announced. Fans were hyped at the time and hopeful that the film would follow Rick Grimes, who had essentially just been kidnaped in the show's ninth season.
No official release date for the film was ever provided by those in charge of its production, but it was allegedly set to be released anywhere between 2021 through 2024, with the date constantly getting pushed back due to production delays.
This did not stop the people involved in the film from continuing to hype it up, with AMC dropping teaser trailers that seemed to hint at the plot of the film heavily Rick and seeming to pick up right where viewers left off with his story.
The film, despite AMC's efforts to hype up the idea of a film that ties into Rick Grimes and the original show, was canceled, a move which sorely disappointed the fan base that was so looking forward to finding out what happened to Rick.
But from the ashes of the film rose another spinoff series that will still follow Rick Grimes, with Andrew Lincoln confirming that he will be returning to play the character in the show. Danai Gurira will be joining Lincoln in the series as the much beloved Michonne.
Lincoln hinted to fans that the show will include "an epic love story" between the two characters.
Are The Walking Dead Fans Feeling Burned Out?
While fans are no doubt excited about the return of Rick Grimes to the franchise, and the comments on Norman Reedus's post for Daryl Dixon's spinoff are overwhelmingly positive, the decline in views for The Walking Dead seems to hint that some are done with the series as a whole.
The Walking Dead's first season had almost six million viewers tune in for the show, numbers that eventually swelled to over 17 million in its fifth season. Things started to decline from there, with many fans opting out of the later seasons due to repetitive or lackluster storylines.
The Walking Dead's views for its final season have been lackluster, to say the least, with only its premiere episode making just over two million views, with the following episodes barely making that. Fear the Walking Dead isn't doing much better, with its most recent season barely hitting one million views per episode.
Regardless of how high or low the views for the franchise are, AMC is readily pushing forward with its upcoming projects, with no further cancelations announced in sight, for now.
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