The COVID-19 coronavirus has had a drastic impact on every country around the world, and its affects on the entertainment industry are an unfortunate side-effect for those stuck at home in self-quarantine desperately seeking a way to pass the time. Films are being delayed indefinitely, video games are seeing their release dates postponed, and production of new content in these mediums is facing substantial setbacks.
Among the setbacks is production on AMC’s The Walking Dead and its world-expanding spinoffs Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond. AMC initially planned for this year to feature 40 consecutive weeks of new The Walking Dead content. This would have began with the back half of The Walking Dead‘s 10th season before leading into the 10-episode run of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, onward to Fear the Walking Dead‘s 6th season of 16 episodes, and then full-circle into the first half of season 11 of The Walking Dead.
Unfortunately, these plans have now been disrupted due to the pandemic. AMC first delayed production of the next season of The Walking Dead by about a month before doing the same to season 6 of Fear the Walking Dead. More recently, however, they’ve also been forced to delay the season finale of The Walking Dead to later in the year due to post-production issues – a decision which also meant the postponement of the same-day series premiere of The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
With production time frames being up in the air on so much of shared universe’s content, fans may have to wait considerably longer than they thought for more from The Walking Dead, and that’s certainly a shame.