The end of the world has traditionally been a turbulent place to be a showrunner. The Walking Dead famously had a rapid turnover of head writers in the pre-Scott Gimple years, to the extent that an entire episode was set up by Frank Darabont was ultimately scuppered due to the clash between Darabont and AMC. Remember that tank Rick hides in? And the dead soldier who looks a lot like Sam Witwer? Yeah, it was Sam Witwer.

The original plan was an episode that would follow that character through the final days of the apocalypse and finish with him, mortally wounded, crawling into that tank to die. The last thing we would hear would be the sounds of Rick scrambling into the tank bringing it full circle.

That, of course, is now never going to happen. Although we did end up getting a prequel of sorts with Fear The Walking Dead. Or as we like to call it sometimes “Victor Strand And His Somehow Still Alive Friends”. The third season of FTWD starts shortly and it turns out that will be the last bow for showrunner Dave Erickson. Erickson co-created the show with Robert Kirkman and will leave at the end of this season. He’ll stay on as a producer and remain with AMC on a new contract developing new shows but FTWD year 3 will be his last as show runner. Erickson said

“I have truly enjoyed working with the writers and directors, cast and crew on Fear and am so proud of what we have accomplished over our first two seasons,” Erickson said. “I look forward to completing work on season three, sharing it with the fans and developing new projects with my partners at AMC.”

We’ve criticised the show a good deal at times but the end of season two was a massive step up for it. We’ll be really interested to see what Erickson has in store for year three and are looking forward to what he does next. But we’re especially interested to see who takes over. From where we’re standing it’s Angela Kang’s job to lose. She has the production experience, she’s one of The Walking Dead’s best writers and we think she could write Strand like no one else. Fingers crossed.

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