Cash-Cow Franchise: The universe has quickly become AMC's flagship franchise (AMC was once better known for marquee fare like Mad Men and Breaking Bad) and the most lucrative franchise about Zombies period. The Walking Dead quickly rose to the top of the network's ratings, and branched out into multiple shows, branded merchandise and more. It has inspired multiple video games (including The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, multiple mobile titles, gambling machines and The Walking Dead (Arcade)), lines of action figures, multiple spinoff shows (including, so far, Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Tales of the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Dead City and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), books, the tie-in interview series Talking Dead, webisodes and much more. While fans will generally agree that the highest ratings period for the series (from Seasons 1-7 of the main series) has long been left behind, it's clear that the franchise is still the network's darling. Notably, when AMC announced that the eleventh season of the main series would be its last, they also simultaneously announced a Spin-Off with actors Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) and Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier) at the same time.note Said series was later announced to only be starring Reedus, as McBride dropped out.
What Could Have Been: After "What Comes After" aired in late 2018, it was announced that Andrew Lincoln would return in a trilogy of AMC original movies, with Danai Gurira later all but confirmed to be joining him after her departure from the series. At SDCC 2022, after years of radio silence, it was confirmed that the film trilogy had been retooled into a series.
