When Frank Darabont left The Walking Dead, it caused a lot of controversy. For one thing, it was his vision that brought the comic book series to life and made it so popular. Plus, his exit was pretty unceremonious as AMC just booted him with little notice. The entire second season, after he left the show, was hampered with lesser storytelling and it wasn’t until the third season that it regained its footing.
Now, in the fourth season, the show is working with its third different showrunner as Darabont’s replacement – Glen Mazzara – was also cut loose in much the same manner as Darabont. Looking back, Darabont is still holding a grudge against AMC for the way he was released and treated after helping kick off the network’s most successful show. Darabont said he hasn’t even watched the show since AMC fired him.
“If the woman you loved with all your heart left you for the Pilates instructor and just sent you an invitation to the wedding, would you go?” Darabont asked. “There’s a deep commitment and emotional investment that happens when you create something that is very near and dear to you, and when that is torn asunder by sociopaths who don’t give a sh*t about your feelings or the feelings of your cast and crew because they have their own reasons to screw everybody, that doesn’t feel good.”
Frank Darabont has moved on and has his new series, Mob City, starting on TNT in December, a show that will star Jon Bernthal, the actor who played Shane on The Walking Dead, but left the show shortly after Darabont was fired.
It seems like both Frank Darabont and The Walking Dead are doing just fine without each other, but this is a wound that probably will not heal anytime soon, similar to the reaction of showrunners like Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) who went public with his feelings about AMC after the network fired Mazzara.
While things are good now, will AMC have problems finding people to bring their work to the network based on the comments from Frank Darabont and others about their treatment? Chime in below with your thoughts.
Source: Variety
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If his fury at the executives on the show had A LOT to do with extreme, unfair budget cuts, something like 25% across the board, that’s a serious injustice. If that allegation is true, fans should be OUTRAGED at the exploitation of those actors. If he’s just mad about killing off characters and nothing else, sadly, thats just nature of the show. But I sense this is much, much bigger than that.
Yeah, I heard it has a lot to do with the budget cuts more than anything. I’m really rooting for him with this next show Mob City