The Walking Dead Showrunner Says Coronavirus So Far Not “Overly Disruptive” of Season 11 Work

The coronavirus pandemic responsible for a three to four week push on physical production of The Walking Dead Season 11 has not yet been “overly disruptive” to work on the new season still weeks out from its shooting start, says showrunner Angela Kang. Work on the eleventh season is continuing remotely, ordered before AMC was forced to delay the zombie drama’s Season 10 finale because it is now “impossible” to complete required post-production work still needed for the episode originally scheduled to air Sunday, April 12. AMC similarly delayed the series premiere of The Walking Dead: World Beyond and put a month-long pause on filming of the sixth season of Fear the Walking Dead.

“You know, we obviously made the decision last week to stop all pre-production, that was AMC, just kind of across the board for their production. So, we still have people working remotely. The writers continue to work,” Kang told Deadline. “We’re still several weeks out from anything shooting so it hasn’t been overly disruptive yet. We’re Zooming and Google Docs-ing and doing all the kinds of things that everybody else is doing right now.”

Kang, a “tech head,” previously explained the show was already “very well set up to work remotely,” even before COVID-19 brought much of the film and television industry to a standstill.

“We do video conferences regularly. On a normal basis, I’m very stringent about, ‘If you’re sick, don’t come into the office,’” she previously told The Hollywood Reporter. “The other day, I was on the phone and in meetings from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., all day straight. I did Skype, I did FaceTime, I did Zoom, I did remote reviewing of VFX. We are very well set up to work remotely. That’s been fine for us.”

“Today, nobody is going to be at the office. The room will continue to run. We’re doing it by conference call and we’re doing it by video conference. Everything will continue to run, but on a remote basis,” Kang continued. “We use Zoom. This is how we conference with Georgia when we’re in production. I like the face-to-face of it. We’ve done this for many years. Even when we’re not in a pandemic, any time anyone is sick, they just call into the room and it’s not a big deal. We’re very used to doing this.”

Former showrunner Scott Gimple, who oversees all three Walking Dead shows as chief content officer, also stressed work continues remotely when addressing the coronavirus impact on the franchise.

“Like everyone else, once we’re given the all clear, we’re ready to roar back. Just like with everybody else, it’s this weird moment of pause,” Gimple told THR. “There are so many people who work on these shows. Between the three shows, we’re talking about [numbering] in the thousands. We want everyone safe and healthy. That’s the deal. We all have to pull together to make sure everyone is safe and healthy.”

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.