I think that my favorite moment of the interview was related to the celebrity question. Its that kind of answer that will make everyone just want to stare at each and every one of the undead that are there that much more!
In Part II of amc.com’s two-part fan interview with Scott Gimple, The Walking Dead Showrunner, Executive Producer and Writer talks about diverging from his source material and the possibility of celebrity zombies.
Q: What factors go into your decision-making on whether to follow the comic or diverge from it? – Jan P
A: There are a few things going on with that. There’s so much in our current timeline that doesn’t match up with the comic when they were at this stage of the story. Plus, there were characters that get on the show like Daryl that weren’t even in the comic. So right there there’s a basis for things to be different. That said, what’s cool is we can tell the comic stories sometimes kind of verbatim, sometimes in different ways, sometimes a sort of combination. It’s something we have to do now, and I think it’s something we can use to our advantage. I’d say one of the things I love doing on the show is taking things I love in the comic books and hitting them even harder. Robert Kirkman’s given us an incredible roadmap — an incredible piece of music that we can do a lot of stuff to remix. We have to be like Steve Aoki.
Q: Is there a certain character you see yourself in the show? — EMR
A: That’s too hard a question to answer. Because I have to write all of them, I have to see myself in all of them, and get into their heads. I’m very lucky to have a cool wife like Glenn.
Q: How would you describe Michonne and Carl’s relationship in one word? – walkingdeadbutters
A: Deep.
Q: Just curious, but why are there so many actors from Great Britain on the show? – Darren Meahl
A: I’ll say this: many of them were cast before I was in this position. So I would say as a viewer, because I watched the first season and came on for the second season, I didn’t even know that Andy [Lincoln] and Lennie [James] were English. I would say they do a good job. I was here when we cast David [Morrissey] and Lauren [Cohan], but it wasn’t my decision. I think they’re both great.
Q: Why do you think the show has become the mega-hit that it is? – Ali6905
A: I would say there’s nothing else like it on TV. The comic book is incredibly popular too, and I think there is something about the situation. If you have characters that you love, I think that hopefully is part of it — people really like the characters. They see themselves in one of the characters or all of the characters and they get to ask themselves what they would do in similar situations. There are a lot of very difficult things to think about – even when you turn off the TV, a lot of times.
Q: Do you think the survivors will venture to other areas of the United States? Is there a specific reason they stay around the Georgia area? – Michelle Green
A: It’s entirely possible that they might, you never know. Right now they’ve found a couple different bases of operation. But they are on foot, so anything is possible.
Q: Do a lot of celebrities want to be zombies on the series? – Sharring09
A: There are requests, but generally it doesn’t happen too much. It’s a very difficult job and it takes a certain amount of training and endurance. Put it this way: If there were celebrities that did sneak onto the show somehow, we wouldn’t tell you.
VIa: AMC.
