Walking Deads New Showrunner: I Wont F**k Up The Series

Glen Mazzara tells TV Guide , “I’m not Frank Darabont and I shouldn’t try to be…”

Talking to TV Guide , Glen Mazzara says, “There’s been all this concern that I’m going to f**k up this show, and really, we’re just trying to get it done… We all did a lot of work on plotting this season under Frank, and part of the reason we’ve had such a smooth transition is that it’s a fully articulated world. This [season] is consistent with the material that we did last year. I think, like any second season, you work out the bugs. You try to improve. What you’re seeing is the usual growth of any TV show, creatively. There’s no plan to deviate from what we worked out, there’s no different vision of the show.

“So, now I’m in this situation where I have to take over and try to fill Frank’s shoes. Well, that’s a dangerous situation… I think the show would be inauthentic if I tried to mimic’s Frank’s voice. I’m not Frank Darabont and I shouldn’t try to be. I think that would hurt the show. I asked [the cast], please help keep me honest, keep the writers honest and be collaborative.”

Going into specifics about season two, Robert Kirkman, the man who writes the original The Walking Dead comics and works as a producer on the show, says that the pace will pick up: “Season two is just jam-packed. It’s a much bigger season than the first season. There’s a lot going on.” Kirkman also promises, “more fantastical and gruesome zombie kills,” while Mazzara adds that there will be more humour to the show: “You need to break the tension… This is not a bleak world, it is an intense world, but you need to have humour and hope in it otherwise it’s a very bleak, ugly world and that’s not something we’re interesting in doing.”

Dave Golder
Freelance Writer

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.