The Walking Dead Creator Slams AMC With A Lawsuit
The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and others have filed a $200 million lawsuit against AMC
Deadline has reported that a new The Walking Dead lawsuit has creators and producers hitting AMC with a new breach of contract action for $200 million. The plaintiffs are the same as the profits participation lawsuit filed by Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Charles Eglee, Glen Mazzara, and David Alpert in 2017. AMC’s lawyer, Gibson Dunn partner Orin Snyder, snapped back at the lawsuit filing calling it a “crass money grab,” before adding that he thinks the lawsuit will fail.
The latest The Walking Dead lawsuit is very similar to the lawsuit filed by original showrunner Frank Darabont in 2013. Darabont’s lawsuit took nearly a decade of discovery, filings, and legal actions before a settlement agreement was eventually reached in 2021 for the sum of $200 million along with future royalty payments. While the Darabont case was never taken to trial, it seems like this latest lawsuit has a chance to reach that stage if AMC or the producers don’t back down.
The plaintiffs of the latest The Walking Dead lawsuit saw the court granting summary judgment in favor of AMC regarding their 2017 filing. The final ruling was given in April 2022, so there’s definitely precedence for AMC to gain the favor of the courts for this latest suit as well. We’ll just have to wait and see if this goes to trial and if the courts decided to award money to the producers this time around.
Robert Kirkman is best known for creating The Walking Dead comics and this lawsuit shows that he clearly isn’t happy with what he’s getting out of the zombie universe that has become a major franchise for AMC. The flagship series will finally conclude its 11-season run when the series finale airs on November 20. It does make sense that the show is coming to an end, as the ratings have been in a steady decline after peaking with the show’s fifth season.
While The Walking Dead lawsuits and legal dramas rage on, the franchise grows ever larger. The flagship series may be ending but there are plenty of spin-offs that are ongoing with new spin-offs on the way. Fear the Walking Dead, the first spin-off that began in 2015, is already entering its eighth season.
The Walking Dead lawsuit will likely have long-term ramifications considering how many spin-offs are in the pipeline. The Walking Dead: World Beyond spin-off has already come and gone and then you have the ongoing anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead which just concluded its first season this September. Next up there will be a New York City-set series in April 2023 titled The Walking Dead: Dead City that stars Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as their characters Maggie and Negan.
Norman Reedus will also be getting his own spin-off titled Daryl Dixon which is scheduled for a 2023 release date. Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira will also be getting a spin-off series set for a 2023 release date that follows Rick and Michonne’s storyline for six episodes, with the potential for more seasons after the first. In short, it looks like there is plenty more of The Walking Dead, and the legal drama surrounding it, to come.
