Skip to main content

You can’t keep a good zombie down: AMC renews Walking Dead for season 7

Walking Dead Bring Back The Dead
As far as AMC is concerned right now, everything is coming up zombies.

Showing the staying power of even the most tenacious of the show’s “walkers,” AMC tentpole The Walking Dead has been renewed for yet another season. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the 7th season chronicling the sprawling apocalyptic wasteland that hosts everyone’s favorite band of survivors has been slated to air in October, 2016

Related Videos

Given the show’s status as one of the biggest series on TV, the decision by AMC to pull the trigger for season 7 is hardly a surprising one — a point underlined by AMC president Charlie Collier today.

“Thank goodness someone had a Magic 8-Ball with them in our many long internal meetings about these renewals,” quipped Collier in a statement regarding the renewal.

“All joking aside,” Collier continued, “we are so proud to share these shows with fans who have been so passionate, communicative and engaged. We are grateful for and continually impressed by the talent, effort and excellence on continuous display by (The Walking Dead executive producers) Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple, (Talking Dead host) Chris Hardwick and the many people with whom we partner to make these unique shows possible. The result: More Walking and Talking. Hooray.”

The “Talking” Collier refers to at the end there is the show’s sidecar series, Talking Dead, a talk show that dissects each episode immediately after airing with celebrity guests, hosted by Nerdist extraordinaire Chris Hardwick.

The popularity of the zombie thriller has only grown since its addictive six-episode debut in 2010, and it seems to be showing no signs of slowing down. As EW reports, the series is number one on TV among the coveted 18-49-year-old demographic, and regularly pulls in between 15-18 million viewers each week.

Showing the network certainly knows how to capitalize on a good thing, AMC has doubled down (or tripled if you count Talking Dead) on its zombie phenom, airing a spinoff series that premiered last August, Fear the Walking Dead, which exists in the same universe. The latter has also garnered both critical and commercial success in its own right.

Editors' Recommendations

Giancarlo Esposito will star in new AMC series, The Driver
Black Noir in The Boys

In 2009, Giancarlo Esposito made an immediate impression as drug lord Gus Fring on AMC's Breaking Bad, and he's been a staple on the network ever since. Esposito also reprised his role as Fring for Better Call Saul. But now that the Breaking Bad prequel series is set to end this year, Esposito will finally headline his own AMC drama.

Via Deadline, Esposito will star in The Driver, a remake of a BBC One miniseries that originally featured David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) in the title role. Esposito will portray a cab driver "whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to chauffer a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern ports."

Read more
AMC lines up a new Walking Dead spinoff for Negan and Maggie
Negan and Maggie in The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead will come to an end after 11 seasons later this year. However, two of the primary leads will live on. AMC has announced a new Walking Dead spinoff, The Walking Dead: Isle of the Dead, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan reprising their respective roles as Negan and Maggie.

However, Maggie and Negan don't exactly have a close relationship on the show. Warning, spoilers follow: The first time they met, Negan murdered Maggie's husband, Glenn. In recent seasons, Negan has reformed and aligned himself with the survivors at Alexandria. Naturally, Maggie has never forgiven Negan, but they have been able to work together on occasion. In Isle of the Dead, the unlikely duo will go someplace where TWD hasn't explored before: New York City.

Read more
The Walking Dead: All 10 seasons, ranked
Carol and Daryl walking together on The Walking Dead.

Never has a show jumped a proverbial shark only to land ever so steadily and tread water for a few seasons, then rise above once again like The Walking Dead. If you're one of the viewers who stuck with the show through its lowest points, you will have reaped the benefits of the big pay-off that came after the post-apocalyptic series hit its stride once again.

The Walking Dead's earliest seasons drew viewers into emotional, heart-wrenching scenes, shocking them with copious amounts of action and gore, and built characters who fans became deeply invested in as the story arcs developed. Following some questionable middle seasons, the show returned to its initial appeal thanks to reinvigorated elements that made it fresh and exciting once again.

Read more