'The Walking Dead' Showrunner Scott Gimple on His Final Episode

After serving as showrunner for several seasons on The Walking Dead, Sunday's Season Eight finale [...]

After serving as showrunner for several seasons on The Walking Dead, Sunday's Season Eight finale will be his last episode in the role. As it turns out, Scott Gimple knew this fact all along.

Following Season Eight, Gimple moves to the role of Chief Content Officer, overseeing the entire Dead universe and its possible expansions, with Angela Kang stepping into the gig for Season Nine. It might be why the Season Eight finale seems to basically be serving as a series finale, in several ways.

"It's super weird, but we had been planning this for a long, long time," Gimple told EW of his showrunner exit. "In fact, I started this year talking to the actors and producers and everything about the change, so I have been living with it a great deal of time. I just still… I love show-running. I love show-running this show, and it's definitely tough to let that aspect go, but working on both shows has been awesome. Working with Angela has been awesome, working with [Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg on Fear the Walking Dead] has been awesome."

Gimple is looking forward to the road ahead of him, as he will have new obstacles to overcome and wider ranging decision to make. "It's bittersweet, but I love new challenges, and I want to ensure the health of both shows and love doing new stuff," Gimple said. "I just didn't want to divide myself up as much as I might have if I kept show-running. I was working on Fear with those guys last year as I was starting Walking Dead, and there's no way that I could've done the show without Angela's help and Angela jumping in even more than she has in the past. So, she got some full on-the-job training even more than she had in the past, and it's a very cool way to pass the baton to someone that I started on the show with."

After years of controlling the characters' lives and final cuts of episodes, Gimple handed in his last efforts before the transition and it doesn't seem like a moment which he will soon forget. "When I finished my last mix, it was very late, and I was driving through the WB lot and it was empty — it was deserted like the end of the world," Gimple said. "And it was very weird driving home that night from the last one. It didn't exactly feel over, it just felt different. It's definitely not retirement, which would be super sweet, but it's just a whole host of different responsibilities and challenges."

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. 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.

2comments