'The Walking Dead': AMC Networks Laying Off Around 40 Employees

11/05/2018 05:09 pm EST

AMC Networks will be laying off upwards of 40 employees — about 2% of the workforce — as the company works to centralize operations, according to Deadline.

Executive Sarah Barnett has been promoted to president of entertainment networks, a step up from her previous role as GM of BBC America.

Fellow AMC execs David Madden and Linda Schupack also received promotions, with Madden will now head network programming while Schupack will be the new President of Marketing, Entertainment networks. Both staffers will report to Barnett in their new roles.

According to AMC Chief Operating Officer Ed Carroll, the reorganization is an attempt to make the network as "nimble as possible."

"We wanted a structure that would make us as nimble as possible," Carroll said. "We wanted to see the entire marketplace from one seat."

The lay off news come on the heels of the network announcing that they're doubling down on their The Walking Dead universe, after they revealed series lead Andrew Lincoln has signed a deal to appear in a trilogy of movies.

"This is not a trick. This is the end of Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead. This is not going to be the end of Rick Grimes' story," The Walking Dead producer Scott Gimple said on the live aftershow immediately trailing Lincoln's last episode of the flagship series.

"We're going to continue telling Rick Grimes' story in a series of AMC original films. There's a lot of story to tell. It's going to show a different situation that Rick is involved in. These are going to be shown on AMC, but they are going to have the scope of featured films," Gimple explained.

The AMC exec went on to detail how several more Walking Dead projects are in the works that will show up for "years to come."

"We have a lot on the horizon – starting with a new epic featuring one of the greatest leading actors in television history and one of the best people I've ever met," Gimple says in the statement.

"These films are going to be big evolutions of what we've been doing on the show, with the scope and scale of features. We're starting with the first part of the continuing story of Rick Grimes, and there is much more on the way, featuring yet-unseen worlds of The Walking Dead and faces from the show's past, as well as new characters we hope to become favorites, told by TWD veterans and emerging voices. We want to break new ground with different, distinct stories, all part of the same world that's captured our imagination for nearly a decade of the Dead."

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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