Some interesting news from the world of The Walking Dead. Apparently writer/director/producer Frank Darabont has decided to send away his entire writing staff, and will not be replacing them with a new writing staff for season 2 of the show, which was recently announced by AMC.
No word on exactly why the writing staff was fired, but it’s assumed that they just weren’t getting the job done. Darabont himself penned the first two episodes, and he did touch-ups and rewrites on the last four of this six-episode first season run.
Instead of the usual replacement of said terminated staff, it sounds as if Darabont is planning to just put the jobs out to freelance writers while continuing to ensure that the quality is up to par himself. This wouldn’t be the first time this strategy has been attempted: Starz and the BBC also uses freelance writers for Torchwood, which was the method used by their UK counterpart. Though this is okay with the BBC, it’s expected that issues might arise with the Writer’s Guild.
It’s also noted that this could change, and that it’s not guaranteed that the show will go into production without a writing staff. There’s the possibility of having a staff/freelancer mix, or if things get messy, you might just see a full staff after all.
With plans for the second season not set to debut until next fall, there’s more than enough time to figure things out. So long as Darabont is willing to go workaholic and makes sure every script is a good as possible, things should be fine, but this does seem a little risky, especially considering that season 2 will have thirteen new episodes instead of just six.
What do you think?
[Source: Deadline]
