The Walking Dead: Daryl spin-off gets a new showrunner

A year and a half ago, AMC announced that once The Walking Dead wraps up its eleventh and final season, it would be followed by a spinoff that would center on fan favorite characters Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus). The showrunner of this spin-off would be Angela Kang, who has been part of the Walking Dead world for several years and has served as showrunner on the ninth, tenth, and eleventh seasons of The Walking Dead. But things aren’t going according to the original plan. Last week, it was confirmed that the Carol character has been removed from the spinoff because it’s set in Europe and McBride couldn’t relocate to Europe for the production. Now Deadline reports that Kang has decided to step aside as showrunner. She is being replaced at the helm of this series by longtime ER showrunner David Zabel, a newcomer to the Walking Dead franchise.

Deadline hears that Kang is handing the show over to Zabel so she can “concentrate on other projects she has in development with AMC”. She will remain on board the spin-off as an executive producer, alongside Scott M. Gimple and others.

As for what condition the spin-off is in now that it has lost McBride,

While scripts for the spin-off were pretty far down the line before McBride’s departure, a strategic pivot is taking place now to meet the start of shooting overseas in the next two or three months.

Some fans of The Walking Dead were so upset to hear that Carol will no longer be a part of this show, they were directing their frustrations toward Reedus. AMC had to stand up for him, saying

Norman Reedus is being unfairly targeted and attacked [on] social media for a decision he had no part in. Melissa McBride decided she could not participate in the series because relocating to Europe became logistically untenable for her. It is inappropriate to direct negativity and anger at another cast member for a disappointing outcome he had nothing to do with.”

In addition to being showrunner on ER, Zabel co-created the PBS series Mercy Street with Lisa Q. Wolfinger. Deadline lets us know that his other writing and producing credits include Dark Angel, Star Trek: Voyager, Detroit 187, Red Band Society, and Lucky 7.

Beyond this Daryl spinoff, AMC is continuing the Walking Dead franchise with an anthology series called Tales of the Walking Dead, a spinoff called Isle of the Dead that will center on Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and at least one more season of Fear the Walking Dead.