Tales of the Walking Dead will tell one-off stories, like Black Mirror with zombies
New characters and some familiar faces will take on The Walking Dead in a new anthology spinoff series officially confirmed by AMC.
The next Walking Dead series will feature standalone stories with new and familiar characters.
The Walking Dead is coming to an end, but the franchise is rising from the grave. As AMC's hit zombie-apocalypse show closes out its final season, a new series has been confirmed: Tales of the Walking Dead.
Set in the expanding universe of the original show, Tales of the Walking Dead will be an anthology series of one-shot episodes focusing on other survivors of the dangerous, zombie-infested world -- including both new and established characters.
First teased last year, the new spinoff will be the fourth entry in the franchise, following the original show, semi-prequel Fear the Walking Dead, and the more youthfully-skewed Walking Dead: Worlds Beyond. While the others each told an ongoing story with an ensemble cast, the new anthology series will bring in standalone stories and characters, in the vein of Netflix's Black Mirror and or The Outer Limits but with a zombie flavor.
The first season is planned for six one-hour episodes on AMC and streaming service AMC Plus. There's no release date yet, but with The Walking Dead season 11 continuing in early 2022 it will probably follow after the main show finishes.
Following the announcement, Scott Gimple, chief content officer for The Walking Dead franchise, said this show presents an opportunity to tell new stories that couldn't work in other shows.
"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," Gimple said in a press release. "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."
More than 10 years after the 2010 debut of The Walking Dead, the franchise continues to be a massive hit for AMC on live TV and across streaming platforms. After the original series ends sometime in 2022, another series will focus on Daryl and Carol, played by Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride, and there's still those Rick Grimes movies in the works. There's life in the Walking Dead franchise yet.
