Scott Gimple is well known as being the Chief Content Officer for the
Walking Dead franchise as he has been involved in one capacity or another with the series for years. Gimple often speaks up and addresses the shows in
The Walking Dead universe, even though his comments sometimes come in for a lot of backlash.
We recently reported that Gimple was discussing possible
Walking Dead projects or events that would feature characters who have already gone or perished and that we might spend time exploring the backstories of people fans thought they may never see on screen again. When talking to EW, Gimple also addressed the recent season of
Fear the Walking Dead, which is gearing up for
Season 6 while the flagship series finishes its own tenth season, and another new series,
The Walking Dead: World Beyond, kicks off.
As you can see from the comments below, Gimple seems to believe that anyone who was left confused or unhappy at the end of
Season 5 might just feel differently if they can manage to hold out for the next season.
We’ve been lucky enough on that show to be able to do these long-range plans. Season 5 was about setting up this journey that these characters are on through there to season 6, and I think people are going to see the relationship between those two seasons. I think even getting to the very end of season 5, the last few moments, really informing that whole season about reaching for benevolence and reaching for sweetness and art and just life and how in the circumstances they’re in, it didn’t work, and how we leave a person that put that forward isolated, alone, bleeding in a dead town.
I’m curious how people will watch that season in the future. Season 2 [of The Walking Dead], when we did it, we were assailed in a lot of ways. “Why are they on the farm? Why are doing this? Why are they doing that?” I think in subsequent years, people watching that season had different takes. This season 5 as a piece setting up season 6 into a truly serialized entertainment, I think people might see the relationship and the journey, why the journey went the way it did. I was so happy with the way that everybody did. I think it really did come together in the end in this really tragic way that we couldn’t have gotten to without the journey that we had been on. It was cumulative.
Gimple goes on to reference shows like
The Mandalorian as to why he has faith that people will endure the new age of binging to continue to tune in weekly for more serialized storytelling.
I think everybody’s opinion is … as long as their opinion is come to honestly, nobody’s opinion is wrong. It’s how they feel about what they consume. But the one aspect that could potentially temper it is just taking the whole of it together. It is asking a lot of the audience to do that though. It’s an interesting thing that we face, and if you look at The Mandalorian, you look at a lot of shows on Hulu, and I think what Disney+ is now going to be doing, they are showing shows week to week. It is interesting, it’s a challenge that I think people will continue to have because the story might not go the way the audience wants it in the short term, but it’s all towards telling this grander story for them in the long term. I hope that anybody who had an issue with it can see this upcoming season and see how that led to this, because it was always the plan, to tell a story of some serious contrasts.
What do you think about Gimple's comments regarding
Fear the Walking Dead? Do you think he has a point? You can read the rest of his interview
here and check out the trailer for
Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 below if you haven't seen it yet!
Fear the Walking Dead returns with Season 6 on Sunday, August 11th, 2020 at 9/8c.
In Fear the Walking Dead Season 5, the group’s mission is clear: locate survivors and help make what’s left of the world a slightly better place. With dogged determination, Morgan Jones (James) leads the group with a philosophy rooted in benevolence, community and hope. Each character believes that helping others will allow them to make up for the wrongs of their pasts. But trust won't be easily earned. Their mission of helping others will be put to the ultimate test when our group finds themselves in unchartered territory, one which will force them to face not just their pasts but also their fears. It is only through facing those fears that the group will discover an entirely new way to live, one that will leave them forever changed.