The Failure of The Dead (On why no Zombie series has the success of Walking Dead

[SUPERECWFAN1]

It all began with George Romero.

He is considered the father of Zombies and the reason they became a big deal in films and media after Night of the Living Dead. Romero created a super natural force that even after his death 5 years ago the genre of horror continues on. Romero laid the ground work for what we see and for that he deserves every nod from us horror fans for it.

As the zombies craze really seemed to cool a lot by the 2000's , we still got movies based around Romero's work. Land of the Dead and new versions of Dawn happened as we saw with Ving Rhames. But there was something about to happen that would kick start a new era and one were still in. All it took was a comic book writer to convince Image Comics to put out a series.




Robert Kirkman would in 2003 release the Walking Dead onto the world. A world where zombies (now called walkers) were unleashed into a world where Rick Grimes (the lead character) wakes from a coma to discover. Grimes a small town deputy sheriff has to try and keep his family alive and survive this harsh world where the dead now walk the Earth !

The Walking Dead wasn't an overnight sensation. In fact as an indie book it just caught fire on word of mouth. Which grew....and grew...and grew every month. More fans discovered this beautiful hard series printed in b&w comics. The growing fire from fans had a rare thing happen. Networks wanted to put the Walking Dead on TV. Which added even more HEAT to the comic series.

It also came down to a couple choices Kirkman had to make. Its said NBC couldn't air the Walking Dead due to its subject matter. They suggested a police procedural show which...is ....ok its f'n odd they saw this comic series and did that. NBC lost untold millions doing this as Kirkman rejected that.

But the deal came down to HBO and AMC. Its here Kirkman would make a decision that today still is considered the best one even though then people questioned the wisdom of it. HBO was then...a better network. This is a network that had Sopranos , Rome , Deadwood , and Curb Your Enthusiasm. So Kirkman turning down HBO and going with AMC was a whoa ...moment. But AMC itself had showed itself as a network that did edgy cable fare.

In the past decade they had 2 of the biggest hits in Breaking Bad with a character who became a meth kingpin in Walter White. As well as Mad Men which examined a character using a fake identity to become a Madison Avenue executive in the 1960's. So AMC itself was ready for something edgy and different. And what they did would unleash something new on the world.





When the show made its premiere in 2010 the world soon saw the Walking Dead. A gritty zombie series which was clearly Romero inspired for sure. But unlike the films where they ended , Kirkman's series NEVER DID end. As his comic series proposed this world just didn't end , it continued with survivors having to keep alive and more.

By the 2nd season the Walking Dead was a literal insane hit. The show was gaining and attracting more and more fans. Mad Men had been AMC's signature show but by season 2 , that was over. AMC was now home of the Walking Dead and the show became the #1 show on cable TV. AMC gained power and used the show to get better TV rates and more from cable providers and the executives gushed over the series , even as they changed showrunners like they changed socks.

Now with a series that has untold millions of people watching , generating millions for a network it became clear the show was gonna have competition ahead. Now this had networks decide to compete and they quickly began approving new shows with zombies and well....none of them worked as good as Rick Grimes and crew.

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- Zombieland : Fox Network had missed out on Walking Dead but saw the success of that series and quickly approved a TV pilot based on the 2009 hit film Zombieland. But what happened was Fox saw the pilot and quickly decided against it. The pilot can be seen on YouTube I believe and was the earliest attempt at trying to capture the zombie mania that began with Walking Dead. This happened in 2013.


-IZombie : Remember when I brought up that NBC wanted a police procedural show ? Well the CW took a roll of the dice on a comic book series in 2015 based on a medical examiner who helped solve crimes who...was a zombie. The series itself launched with a lot of success and slowly just seemed to fade on CW as the years passed. It was the most successful really of the zombie shows but it was no where near Walking Dead's popularity. It ran 71 episodes from 2015-2019 on CW.


-Z Nation : SyFy came up to bat next on the zombies craze. They decided to literally copy the near same characters and plots from Walking Dead , with a campy silly tone. Made by the Asylum the series itself ran 5 seasons for SyFy and really never was as successful as Walking Dead. Its budget was way less which likely didn't help. It ran from 2014-2018 and ended after 68 episodes.


-Black Summer : Airing on Netflix Black Summer took a more serious approach as a prequel series to Z Nation. Created by Asylum this one begins when the outbreak began zombie wise. Its ran 2 seasons and there is no word if it will get a renewal on Netflix or not. (Likely not since its last episode aired in 2021).


These were the noticeable shows from 2013 to 2021. There was some ok shows that did well but in each case the shows never could equal the popularity of the Walking Dead in the genre that began.


This leads us into the failure of the last 2 recent shows based on Dead. In fact the shows ahead are what NOT to do here.


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- Day of the Dead : In 1985 George Romero had wrote and directed what many consider his best Dead film. Taking place in a bunker Day of the Dead was just...beautiful to watch. The film itself had been cut down from Romero's big dream script wise. He had wanted to create a "Gone with the Wind" for zombies. But his script was considered too massive by executives and costly. So he paired it down...a lot. But the script for this epic still exists.

Day of the Dead has the most sequels of Romero's films due to its considered greatness. And well...they are f'n terrible films which someone should toss in a fire pit.

Anyhow SyFy channel decided on a Day of the Dead series. One where a lot of people were excited given the questions and open backstories of the 1985 classic film. What SyFy did however was create another comedy zombie series in the vein of Z Nation and NO ONE cared. In fact the show premiered in 2021 and died a quick death itself. Comments of how awful this show was and how SyFy should admit it bears no relation to the Romero film happened.

SyFy had a literal money making idea here and could have itself created a new era Zombie series to take the baton from Walking Dead main series as it winds down. Instead the executives have themselves to blame for this failure.

But SyFy itself would not be alone in failing.



-Resident Evil : Resident Evil was a mega popular video game series. Where the games sell millions of units and stories have ranged from evil Villages to mansions. The games brought about a movie series that has made millions of dollars from 2000 onward. The die hard fans have made that franchise a hit with comics , video games and movies. Its a mass media franchise that when Netflix announced it had a series coming....people were excited.

But Netflix has been plagued with executives who the past few years who have gotten properties like Cowboy Bebop and then doing a terrible show no one liked. As they felt they had to personally put their "stamp" on the series. Not realizing ...your a TV executive. And your "stamp" isn't creative and as we saw with Day of the Dead it leads to failure.

Resident Evil could have been a literal big success for Netflix. But within episodes fans detailed how bad the show was and the dislike caused it to tank quick. It too would be cancelled after a season aired. Showing that it just was another Netflix failure on what this network did wrong and how its best to hire creative people to do a show that won't irk the main fans of it.


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- In each case the past decade these shows would launch and fade. All while Walking Dead rolled on. Not the power house it once was. But still a huge success for AMC. The failures of these shows have to make AMC think of how lucky they were to catch a franchise like this and to keep it going 12+ years later.

In TV a successful show is usually copied like Friends , Seinfeld and more. The copies 9 times outta 10 fail in quick order. In cable and TV the past 12 years we have seen this.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Zombies haven't caught on because the writers keep to the same damn outline Romero established.

Everyone not a protagonist is evil.

Army is super evil and utterly incompetent in handling an easily predicted and lured enemy.

90% of Humanity has forgotten how to build walls or any other real defense

No survivalists are ever consulted

And above all else, melodrama, melodrama, melodrama.

Walking Dead TV series is the exception to the rule because it had the comic to draw on. And the TV series floundered whenever it so much as inched away from the source material.

Writers oughta just pull back

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Zombies haven't caught on because the writers keep to the same damn outline Romero established.

Everyone not a protagonist is evil.

Army is super evil and utterly incompetent in handling an easily predicted and lured enemy.

90% of Humanity has forgotten how to build walls or any other real defense

No survivalists are ever consulted

And above all else, melodrama, melodrama, melodrama.

Walking Dead TV series is the exception to the rule because it had the comic to draw on. And the TV series floundered whenever it so much as inched away from the source material.

Writers oughta just pull back

The TV series has not followed the source material since the 1st season really with changes made.

[The Cool Thatguy]

The TV series has not followed the source material since the 1st season really with changes made.

It kept to it as much as humanly possible and didn't seem to know what to do with itself outside of it.

I mean, they never had Maggie react to her sister's death (real and fake) because all her in character story was focused on Glenn. They never developed the prisoners at the prison, because that wasn't in the comics. The Governor wanted the prison even though his place was secure, and he saw the place nearly get overrun himself.

The comics were a rough outline for the show, and when the show got too far from that, it clearly floundered.

[Immortal Weapon]

As a resident evil diehard you need to point to me where people were excited for the Netflix shows. Fans questioned it the moment the synopsis and Lance Reddick casting hit.

[Brian B]

Don’t forget Tony Moore co-created Walking Dead, too.

I’m not sure how much Kirkman is loving AMC these days.

While I’m sure he’s done very well, he definitely hasn’t made as much as the original showrunner or the showrunner’s agents, CAA. They won a $200 million settlement from AMC, while Kirkman’s own, similar lawsuit was dismissed.

[Jokerz79]

It's kind of funny you didn't mention the adjacent films to Romero's work.

Due to rights split with John Russo over Night of the Living Dead Romero had to use the term "Dead" and not "Living Dead" while Russo got "Living Dead" and it's how we got the Living Dead films which the 1st one is an absolute classic. 2 and 3 are good and the rest are just dumb fun if you got time to kill.

Also, the European investors in Dawn of the Dead which was called Zombie in Europe after the success of the film the producers wanted to do an immediate sequel something Romero wasn't interested in at the time and they released Zombi 2 a Quasi Prequel Sequel to Dawn of the Dead without George's involvement. Zombi 2 is known as Zombi in the U.S. and is a decent film with a crazy scene were a shark attacks a Zombie and also a gory scene where a woman loses an eye. Zombi 3 is just a Zombie film with the name but an ok fun movie. The rest of the Zombi "Series' is pretty bad just bad zombie movies with the Zombi name slapped on.

Also, there is the 1990 Night of the Living Dead remake which Dawn of the Dead Special effect artist Tom Savini directed which George had involvement and few later remakes which were made because people could due to the film being in public domain.

Also, side not while George had a wonderful relationship Greg Nicotero having gotten him into film and was close to him up until the end. George was on the record saying he hated the Walking Dead. He was a big fan of Shaun of the Dead though giving Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright cameos as the Paintball Zombies in Land of the Dead.

[ChrisIII]

Kind of curious how The Last of Us is going to do. Of course he's played the loner/surrogate father of a young ward with a special destiny before...

Also TLOU's zombies are a bit different, not so much the undead but humans turned rabid/mutated by fungi (based on an actual real thing that can happen to insects).

[titanfan]

Kind of curious how The Last of Us is going to do. Of course he's played the loner/surrogate father of a young ward with a special destiny before...

Also TLOU's zombies are a bit different, not so much the undead but humans turned rabid/mutated by fungi (based on an actual real thing that can happen to insects).

They better change the ending for The Last of Us 2 if they are adapting it.

Zombies themselves are not compelling villains, mindless, unrelatable etc. The best Zombie Stories, like Walking Dead, the Zombies are just the backdrop and the real villains are other humans.

[CSTowle]

I enjoy a good zombie movie or show the way I enjoy any good horror movie or show, with the understanding that they will be few and far between and I'm going to have to wade through a river of garbage to find them.

I still watch the "Walking Dead", but mostly out of habit and to finish it off. It hasn't been compelling in a very long time, probably Negan (sort of like the comic itself). What it and the comic had going for it was one of those "Geez, why didn't I think of that" so-simple-it's-genius ideas, "Hey, what if we didn't end the zombie movie and just kept watching these people navigate a world full of zombies?" Turns out, zombies lose their luster pretty quickly and you have to dream up new human threats every so often. Rinse/repeat.

At some point something else will come along, likely a movie, that will scratch my zombie itch like the first couple of seasons of TWD. But glad it happened, sad it's going (even if it's overdue), and hats off to everyone involved. Will say I enjoyed "Fear the Walking Dead" before they killed off two of my favorite characters and made it "the Morgan Show, also starring former members of the main cast". After jumping the nuclear shark and turning my last favorite character into the Big Bad I finally gave up on it this past season, but would recommend the first 3 seasons at least. If you want to scratch that itch.

[ChrisIII]

They better change the ending for The Last of Us 2 if they are adapting it.

Zombies themselves are not compelling villains, mindless, unrelatable etc. The best Zombie Stories, like Walking Dead, the Zombies are just the backdrop and the real villains are other humans.

There's plenty of those in Last of Us as well. David is probably the worst, at least in the first game; wonder if he's the "mystery character" original Joel Troy Baker is going to play (In the game, he was played by Nolan North, who of course is Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series).

As for II, that's certainly a possibility that it could be adapted perhaps for the second season; worth noting that the actress is the same age as Ellie in 2.

[Frobisher]

I think zombies got boring because everything’s been a remake of the first three Romero films over and over again, and then for at least a decade it reached oversaturation with the existence of TV series that were recycling the first three Romero films week after week. Kind of surprised it’s lasted as long as it has, but then the Westerns were around for ages and they only had three plots.

[ChrisIII]

I enjoy a good zombie movie or show the way I enjoy any good horror movie or show, with the understanding that they will be few and far between and I'm going to have to wade through a river of garbage to find them.

I still watch the "Walking Dead", but mostly out of habit and to finish it off. It hasn't been compelling in a very long time, probably Negan (sort of like the comic itself). What it and the comic had going for it was one of those "Geez, why didn't I think of that" so-simple-it's-genius ideas, "Hey, what if we didn't end the zombie movie and just kept watching these people navigate a world full of zombies?" Turns out, zombies lose their luster pretty quickly and you have to dream up new human threats every so often. Rinse/repeat.

At some point something else will come along, likely a movie, that will scratch my zombie itch like the first couple of seasons of TWD. But glad it happened, sad it's going (even if it's overdue), and hats off to everyone involved. Will say I enjoyed "Fear the Walking Dead" before they killed off two of my favorite characters and made it "the Morgan Show, also starring former members of the main cast". After jumping the nuclear shark and turning my last favorite character into the Big Bad I finally gave up on it this past season, but would recommend the first 3 seasons at least. If you want to scratch that itch.

They did bring back Madison although it's unclear whether that'll be a permanent thing (She survived the stadium but is suffering from lung damage from the fire). Alicia left the show although she did in a way it's possible for her to return as it was kind of open-ended what happened to her.

[ChrisIII]

It's kind of funny you didn't mention the adjacent films to Romero's work.

Due to rights split with John Russo over Night of the Living Dead Romero had to use the term "Dead" and not "Living Dead" while Russo got "Living Dead" and it's how we got the Living Dead films which the 1st one is an absolute classic. 2 and 3 are good and the rest are just dumb fun if you got time to kill.

Also, the European investors in Dawn of the Dead which was called Zombie in Europe after the success of the film the producers wanted to do an immediate sequel something Romero wasn't interested in at the time and they released Zombi 2 a Quasi Prequel Sequel to Dawn of the Dead without George's involvement. Zombi 2 is known as Zombi in the U.S. and is a decent film with a crazy scene were a shark attacks a Zombie and also a gory scene where a woman loses an eye. Zombi 3 is just a Zombie film with the name but an ok fun movie. The rest of the Zombi "Series' is pretty bad just bad zombie movies with the Zombi name slapped on.

Also, there is the 1990 Night of the Living Dead remake which Dawn of the Dead Special effect artist Tom Savini directed which George had involvement and few later remakes which were made because people could due to the film being in public domain.

Also, side not while George had a wonderful relationship Greg Nicotero having gotten him into film and was close to him up until the end. George was on the record saying he hated the Walking Dead. He was a big fan of Shaun of the Dead though giving Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright cameos as the Paintball Zombies in Land of the Dead.

Think the Return of the Living Dead films, while mostly comedy (and with 'smart' zombies), have quite a following too.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I think zombies got boring because everything’s been a remake of the first three Romero films over and over again, and then for at least a decade it reached oversaturation with the existence of TV series that were recycling the first three Romero films week after week. Kind of surprised it’s lasted as long as it has, but then the Westerns were around for ages and they only had three plots.

Agree on the plot recycling, disagree on the Westerns

Zombie stories have plenty more story potential, but writers just keep covering the same damn thing. Gets old