Frank Darabont has left the series during the making of its second season
Frank Darabont is stepping down as showrunner on hit zombie TV show The Walking Dead , reports Deadline .
The news is a bit of a shock, as Darabont, who spent five years getting the series ready for TV, appeared on a Walking Dead panel at Comic-Con last Friday happily enthusing about the second season, which is currently in production.
No reason has been given for his departure, but it doesn’t seem to have affected production on the second season, which progresses smoothly. Deadline speculates that Darabont is heading back to his preferred homeland of the big screen ( The Walking Dead was his first TV experience) and that he never quite found his groove in the day-to-day running of television production. Whereas the first series was a mere six episodes long, season two will be 13.
No news yet on who will take over the role of showrunner, but Glen Mazzara (previously from The Shield ) was brought in as an executive producer for season two to act as Darabont’s wingman (and provide essential knowledge of the workings of TV production), so he would seem to be a good bet.
