Blog@Newsarama reported yesterday that The Walking Dead showrunner, Frank Darabont, was leaving that coveted position. Today his number two, Glen Mazzara, has been announced as his replacement.
Deadline writes “Mazzara, who joined the show at the beginning of Season 2 as No. 2 to Darabont, will now indeed be the series’ new showrunner. He remains an executive producer alongside Robert Kirkman, on whose comic the series is based, and Gale Anne Hurd.” The news of Darabont’s departure, although we don’t know if it’s from the show completely, was a huge shock considering he sat on The Walking Dead panel at San Diego Comic-Con last Friday.
Yesterday, Deadline had this to say, “Darabont, who spent five years trying to get a TV version of the zombie saga off the ground and wrote and directed the AMC pilot, hails from the feature world, and I hear that he never quite adjusted to the daily grind of producing a TV series.”
“Production on Season 2 of Walking Dead has not been interrupted by the showrunner change, and the series remains on target for an Oct. 16 premiere,” writes Deadline, “Mazzara has been part of The Walking Dead since Season 1 when he wrote one of the six episodes as a freelancer.” The writer/producers has previously worked on Starz’s Crash, The Shield and Hawthorne.
