Source: Paranormal Pop Culture Actor Sam Witwer has revealed some interesting details about a now canceled Walking Dead web series that Frank Darabont had been laying the groundwork for since early Season 1. Here's what Sam had to say:
WITWER: "I was already in The Walking Dead. You guys have heard what's happened, recently. I'm furious at them for this, because Frank is my friend, he's my buddy. Not only is he my buddy, but he's a guy I'm extremely loyal to, because he gave me a shot with The Mist, when I didn't have a hell of a lot going on. Here's a guy who gets his cast and crew together and gives AMC a show, packages it all together, which is way cheaper than anywhere else because everyone is working way under their pay grade. Why? Because they want to and love working with Frank Darabont.
He has shared with me what kind of pay cuts people were taking, and I am also friends with other people on that set in other departments. He said to me, 'Look, I think it would be really cool to tell a prequel story about how Atlanta fell, do Black Hawk Down, but with zombies, have a few main characters pass through, but the lead will be you. You're a soldier and all these horrible things happen, and the chain of command breaks down, and, eventually, you have to take out your superior officer. Then, eventually, in the end, you get bit.' He's pitching me this. 'You're crawling and you crawl into this tank and you have a grenade and you're going to blow yourself up, but you set the grenade next to you and you die. Then, we reprise the scene from the pilot, where Rick gets in the tank and there's a zombie there.'
If you look closely, I played that zombie, because we were setting up this prequel we were going to do. If you watch the pilot of The Walking Dead, that's me in the tank as the zombie, and then Rick blasts him and he gets deafened, and he gets that grenade which saves him at the end of the season."
Witwer goes on to praise Darabont while sticking it to AMC a little bit:
WITWER: "It's not happening now. Why? Because AMC wanted to save a few bucks. That is just one example of the kind of cool, awesome forethought, this guy has put into this show, that is now absolutely written off. For me, it doesn't matter much because I'm busy doing Being Human. We were going to schedule things around. I'm not lamenting the loss of a job, I'm lamenting the loss of an amazing idea. And there are dozens and dozens of amazing ideas just like that, which are now gone."
Sounds like this could've been a great miniseries, much better than the crawling, half-zombie woman. Regardless, it seems clear to me that whether you think Season 2 is good or bad, you can definitely feel Darabont's absence in terms of the overall tone of the show.
The Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic horror television series developed for television by Frank Darabont and based on the ongoing comic book series, The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. The series stars Andrew Lincoln as Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes who wakes up after being in a coma to find the world inhabited with zombies. He then sets out to find his family and other survivors along the way.
The series premiered on October 31, 2010, and is broadcast on the cable television channel AMC in the United States. The first season premiered to wide acclaim and was nominated for several awards, including the Best Television Series Drama at the 68th Golden Globe Awards. Based on its reception, AMC renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes which premiered on October 16, 2011. Two episodes into the second season, AMC announced that the show would return for a third season.
The first season of The Walking Dead was well received by critics, with a rating of 82 out of a 100 on Metacritic. The season one premiere was watched by over 5.3 million people. The season two premiere was watched by more than 7 million viewers. The Walking Dead also received many nominations, including a Writers Guild of America Award and a Golden Globe Award for a Best Television Series Drama.
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