‘The Walking Dead’: Robert Kirkman On How Much Time Has Passed On The Show

Despite being on air for eight years, far less time has past within The Walking Dead‘s narrative according to its creator Robert Kirkman.

Kirkman, who also created the 15-years-running comic book series on which the AMC zombie show is based upon, opened up about the show’s timeline while aboard the Walker Stalker Cruise. A fan posed the question of how much time has passed since the world fell to the walker virus and while Kirkman wouldn’t disclose exactly how much time has passed, he claims to know the answer himself and gave enough of an answer to satisfy the fans.

“Season One to now, let’s see here, Carl aged how many years?” Kirkman said. “We know internally how much time we think passed between here and now but because of different factors that I’m not gonna go into, it’s not something that we talk about publicly, but we are making sure that we know how much time has passed and we are keeping track of it.”

“It is a number of years less than five,” Kirkman concluded.

The show’s time passing slower than the real world’s contributes to factors such as Maggie not showing her pregnancy despite being revealed to have a baby on board back in Season Six. Though some seasons saw time jumps take places during hiatuses, Season Six, Season Seven, and Season Eight have all take place across a matter of weeks. It can be a bit confusing for the average fan watching over the course of three years as only days pass in episodes which air across several weeks.

The Walker Stalker Cruise will set sail again in early 2019 with celebrities from the popular AMC show cruising with thousands of fans for up to four days.

The Walking Dead returns for the second half of its eighth season on February 25, 2018. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.