The Walking Dead stumbles on without Darabont, hires new showrunner

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

While we were all stunned by yesterday’s news that Frank Darabont is stepping down from his showrunner duties on “The Walking Dead”, the show is obviously not about to lay down and die. Deadline.com has learned that the series has picked itself up by the bootstraps and filled in the vacancy left by Darabont with Glen Mazzara, who joined the show earlier this year as Darabont’s #2 guy.

Mazzara penned last season’s episode “Wildfire” (that was the great second-to-last episode where we were introduced to the Center for Disease Control), but has been a television vet for years, having written for shows like “The Shield, “Life”, and “Nash Bridges”. He also created the television version of the Oscar-winning film CRASH. Mazzara is still also functioning as the head writer and executive producer on “Walking Dead”.

As to why Darabont left the show, there are still no answers. The smart money is on he’s got something else brewing (perhaps THE MAJESTIC 2?!), but Deadline also notes that Darabont might have caved under the pressure of running a television show. Let’s not forget that he’s been almost strictly a feature film guy up until last year.

The site also maintains that Darabont will be involved in “Walking Dead” in some capacity.