The Walking Dead: Behind the Series

ABOUT THE BOOK What happens after the end of the world? When all of society has collapsed, and any sense of safety is fleeting or illusory, is it possible to survive while still remaining fundamentally human – both literally and figuratively? It’s questions like these that have propelled AMC’s The Walking Dead in the ratings upon its record-shattering debut in fall of 2010. Since then, the series has been as irresistible and tasty for viewers as said viewers would be to the man-eating creatures in the show. Adapted from a comic book created by Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead is a visually and emotionally visceral depiction of man’s downfall in the aftermath of a horrifying zombie apocalypse. Starring Andrew Lincoln in the lead role of Georgia sheriff Rick Grimes, the show is currently in the midst of its second season, and continues to enthrall audiences with its somber meditations on violence, religion, humanity, and inhumanity - all woven in with gut-wrenching (and gut-munching) bouts of zombie violence proving the very definition of “bloody good TV.” MEET THE AUTHOR Born and raised in Chicago before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, award-winning writer Zaki Hasan is a professor of communication and media studies, and has been a media scholar and critic for more than fifteen years. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK After steadily building buzz upon its 2003 debut, the notion of transitioning The Walking Dead to the screen swiftly gained traction, especially with the recent release of 2004’s Dawn of the Dead remake, and Shaun of the Dead. George Romero’s return to zombie territory with Land of the Dead (2005) also proved the vitality of the genre. When pondering the possibility of his property becoming a movie or TV show, Kirkman said in a 2010 interview, “I wasn’t dying for it to happen. It was just, if it happened, that’s great.” Finally, in late 2009, a live action television series based on The Walking Dead was announced as being in development by filmmaker Frank Darabont (no stranger to adaptations himself, having previously brought three Stephen King novels to the screen, including 1993’s The Shawshank Redemption) and producer Gale Anne Hurd (whose collaborations with famed director James Cameron on The Terminator and Aliens remain some of the most beloved and masterful mergers of sci-fi and horror of all time). A longtime admirer of the genre, Darabont professed to interviewer Alan Sepinwall that he’d always had the “love of zombies” gene. An avowed fan of the comic series, he had been circling the property since as early as 2005. After several fruitless years of trying to sell various studios and production companies on the idea of a serialized, open-ended zombie epic – a fairly revolutionary idea at the time, Darabont joined forces with Hurd, who saw the same promise in the premise that he did... Buy a copy to keep reading!