The Walking Dead director Greg Nicotero has revealed his pitch for an episode of the post-apocalyptic franchise that he’d love to make. His idea is to come at the story from a “unique perspective” – namely, that of a single zombie, following them from the moment of their death to their reanimation to what they get up to as a walker.
Nicotero – who’s been with TWD as a producer, special effects makeup whizz and director since the show’s early days – explained his concept while speaking with Rotten Tomatoes, saying:
“It would be kind of interesting to have an episode where we actually follow a walker all the way from the beginning,” Nicotero said. “Like the opening scene would be a person is killed, and they’re on the ground dead, and then they come back as a walker, and we actually follow them through the world as they come into contact with different people. I just think it would be a unique perspective, to see an episode not necessarily shot from the point of view of the zombie, but kind of being with a walker as it’s killed and then reanimated and then going into a herd.”
It seems this idea has been cooking in his head for a while now as well, as Nicotero remarked that he somewhat explored the concept way back in season 2, revealing:
“We kind of had a little bit of that in the beginning of season 2 when we started showing the beginning of the herd that overruns Hershel’s farm, but I just think we could do something really fun and special with that.”
This idea for a bottle episode seems unlikely to happen in the remainder of TWD, seeing as there are only 30 outings to go and it might be best to focus on our team of main characters and to keep moving their arcs and stories forward with the time we’ve got left. However, it definitely feels like Nicotero has got a good shot at bringing the concept to life in Tales of the Walking Dead, the anthology spinoff that’s set to debut following the parent show’s conclusion in 2022.
Tales will have as wide a remit as possible, with each episode focusing on different characters, places and periods of the TWD universe. So, Nicotero’s “zombie POV” story would easily fit the bill. EP Scott M. Gimple and co. are even considering doing such out-there concepts as musicals or animated episodes. Anyone fascinated by this idea, then, should sit tight and wait to see if it happens in the spinoff.
The Walking Dead is currently in production on six bonus installments coming in early 2021, while Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond air new episodes weekly on AMC.