Achieving gender equality in television is still a long way off, but The Walking Dead producer Gale Anne Hurd has at least achieved her aim of making the AMC show “gender equal.” More specifically, seasons 9 and 10 of the series were able to meet the requirements of ReFrame, an initiative between the Sundance Institute and Women in Film Los Angeles to hire more female talent behind the camera.
Hurd, who has a history of producing movies with strong female leads, including The Terminator and Aliens, is proud of The Walking Dead‘s achievement and commented about the goals of ReFrame as follows:
“They actually have a set of parameters that determine whether or not a project, film or TV show, is gender equal. And both season 9 and season 10 of The Walking Dead qualified.”
Furthermore, Hurd’s involved in other campaigns aimed at reducing the gender gap in Hollywood, including 10% for 50/50.
As fans will know, over the last few years, The Walking Dead has given female creatives important roles, including Angela Kang as showrunner, and more central parts for characters like Michonne, Carol and Maggie. Although Danai Gurira’s Michonne is leaving the show, her impact as a badass protagonist on the series can’t be understated.
Meanwhile, the zombie franchise’s chief content officer Scott M. Gimple has also praised the gender parity of the program, saying:
“I think that The Walking Dead is a place where you can find great female voices, great female artists and stories that honor female characters, not as a novelty but as intrinsic story value”.
Some of the other series that met ReFrame’s targets include Netflix hits GLOW and Orange is the New Black, as well as Supergirl. And as the Walking Dead universe expands to include a second spinoff, and feature films, there’s plenty more chances for positive representation behind and in front of the camera. In the meantime, season 10 of The Walking Dead is set to premiere on Sunday, October 6th, on AMC.