David Zabel Is the New Showrunner For Daryl’s Walking Dead Spinoff
Big changes are underway on The Walking Dead’s upcoming Daryl-centric spinoff. Melissa McBride was originally expected to co-headline the series as Carol Peletier before she exited the project earlier this week. Now, showrunner Angela Kang is following suit. Deadline brings word Kang has vacated her role as the primary creative force for the series, which has Norman Reedus reprising his fan-favorite role as Daryl Dixon. In her place, David Zabel is coming aboard as the new showrunner.
Kang, who currently showruns the flagship Walking Dead series, was announced as spinoff’s head writer in late 2020. However, she has instead decided to focus on other projects in the works at AMC. Although she won’t be charge of the new show’s day-to-day operations, she will still executive produce alongside Walking Dead Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple.
Zabel, meanwhile, has decades of TV writing experience under his belt. In the early 2000s, he landed a job at NBC’s ER and eventually became the showrunner until the series ended in 2009. More recently, he created the PBS series Mercy Street. Some of Zabel’s other writing credits include episodes of JAG, Star Trek: Voyager, Dark Angel, and Detroit 1-8-7.
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Deadline notes that Zabel closed his deal to take over sometime in the last few weeks, before McBride finalized her departure. Additionally, the report claims several scripts were already turned in before the spinoff lost one of its stars. But in spite of this latest shakeup, the producers still want to overhaul the story in time to start production in Europe “in the next two or three months.”
AMC still hasn’t announced an official title for Reedus’ Walking Dead spinoff. Regardless, the series will premiere sometime in 2023.
Are you excited to see what Zabel brings to the Walking Dead universe? Let us know in the comment section below!
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