AMC may be putting all its eggs into the zombie apocalypse basket.
"The Walking Dead" has been a runaway hit since its first season back in 2010. It is the most watched show on television by a wide margin and an enormous cash cow for the network. As such, it's no surprise that AMC doubled down on the zombie gore with companion series "Fear The Walking Dead," which averaged a very solid 11 million weekly viewers during its inaugural run.
AMC announced earlier this week that "Fear The Walking Dead" will debut its second season on Sunday, April 10, following the finale of the second half of "The Walking Dead's" sixth season just a week earlier. This gives AMC a virtual monopoly on Sunday night programming from Feb. through summer and that monopoly may actually be growing.
AMC execs spoke at length earlier this week about a potential third "Walking Dead" series. Though nothing is in the direct pipeline, it sure sounds as if they are taking the idea seriously.
"The answer is we are open to ideas that feel organic to the creators in whom we've put our trust," AMC network president Charlie Collier told Vulture. "So if Robert [Kirkman] had a world he wanted to explore, you can bet that we are not just leaning into that conversation, but we're actively engaging it."
Fans of the "Dead" universe have noticed that Rick Grimes' story takes place more or less in the present day, whereas "Fear" explores the initial zombie outbreak in its earliest stages. If they wanted to, AMC could set up shop in any timeline they wanted for a third "Dead" series and bridge whatever schedule gaps remain. Though three connected series about the undead may be overkill, the story inherently lends itself to endless possibilities.
"If you ask Robert what his motivations were for writing The Walking Dead, he would say, 'I loved zombie movies, but I just felt like the worst part of them was always the ending. You always had to manufacture some ending,'" AMC programming boss Joel Stillerman said in the same Vulture interview. "So he set out to write this totally open-ended story, and the proof of that is in how vibrant the comics are."
Again, AMC is not currently developing another "Dead"-based series, but obviously, the idea isn't far from their minds. We'll keep you updated if any further details emerge.
