Season 4 officially confirmed - but Glen Mazzara won't be the showrunner...

[MinionZombie]

http://dailydead.com/amc-officially-...fter-season-3/ Sounds amicable, but no doubt they'd be going to great lengths to try and stop any panic after the hardly-amicable departure of Darabont, the only bit that gave me pause for thought/concern is in bold below. Hopefully Mazzara has helped find an ideal replacement - his work after Darabont left, and thus far in season three, has been fantastic - so I just hope we get someone who is equally as good. Naturally as a huge fan of the show this news makes me a bit nervous ... but hopefully the show will continue to be in good hands, particular with the continuing cast, Gale Anne Hurd, Kirkman, the writers, and the crew etc remaining in place. Official announcement from AMC: Today, AMC announces the season 4 pick-up of The Walking Dead. AMC also jointly announces with Glen Mazzara today that for future seasons, the two parties have mutually decided to part ways. Glen guided the series creatively for seasons 2 and 3. AMC is grateful for his hard work. We are both proud of our shared success. Both parties acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward, and conclude that it is best to part ways. This decision is amicable and Glen will remain on for post-production on season 3B as showrunner and executive producer. Here is the official statement from Glen Mazzara regarding the announcement: “My time as showrunner on The Walking Dead has been an amazing experience, but after I finish season 3, it’s time to move on. I have told the stories I wanted to tell and connected with our fans on a level that I never imagined. It doesn’t get much better than that. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey.” Here is the official statement from Gale Anne Hurd regarding the announcement: “I am appreciative and grateful to Glen for his hard work on ‘The Walking Dead.’ I am supportive of AMC and Glen’s decision and know that the series is in great hands with one of the most talented and dedicated casts and crews in the business. I look forward to the show’s continued success.” Here is the official statement from Robert Kirkman regarding the announcement: “I am in full support of both AMC and Glen Mazzara in the decision they have come to and believe the parties came to this decision in the best interest of the future of the show. I thank Glen for his hard work and appreciate his many contributions to The Walking Dead and look forward to working with him as we complete post production on Season 3. I am also excited to begin work on another spectacular season of this show that I know means so much to so many people. This show has always been the result of a wide range of extremely talented men and women working tirelessly to produce their best work collectively. I believe the future is bright for The Walking Dead. Thank you to the fans for your continued support.” Commence the speculation...

[kidgloves]

Im VERY disappointed about the departure of Mazzara. VERY. I think anyone who has followed the behind the scenes goings on since Darabont left has got a very good idea of what a straight shooting guy Glen is. Im going to say that his departure is down to him having a 7 season vision for the show whereas the other producers, rightly imho, want to continue it as long as the market will bear it.

[AcesandEights]

Whoah! This is BIG news for all fans of the show! Mazzara really helmed the ship during some classic material and the show has been great since the 2nd half of season 2 (not that it was bad before that). Well, it's probably good for him, as he will not have to work on something he feels too compromised about and he is certainly getting out while TWD is on top of the ratings! A change could be good, but...yeah...it is of course a bit worrying. I think anyone who has followed the behind the scenes goings on since Darabont left has got a very good idea of what a straight shooting guy Glen is. I agree completely and wish him good luck going forward. On a side note, anyone think we might get a Mazzara-zombie cameo before he finishes his stint?

[bassman]

Why do I get the feeling AMC is yet again being too controlling over this series because they fully own it? Mad Men and Breaking Bad don't have this problem because AMC doesn't own them. Hopefully the next showrunner can continue on as well as Mazzara did from Darabont.

[Moon Knight]

Disappointed, but I guess it's just gonna be a wait and see.

[MinionZombie]

I'm sad to see Mazzara moving on - as has been mentioned, he has done an absolutely wonderful job of steering the show post-Darabont. If anything, he improved the show. Hopefully his replacement will be someone already working on the show - as was the case when Mazzara took over - and I dearly hope this 'difference of opinion' isn't going to impact the show itself. That's the one line that raises concerns, and of course such a brief statement is open to total speculation - so I'm going to try and avoid that (you could be winding yourself up for no good reason - like the concerns after Darabont left, we ended up getting an even better show as a result ... although you do wonder if that will happen twice-in-a-row). Clearly it's been a stage-managed announcement - so they're aware of the fuss surrounding Darabont's departure, and as such I dearly hope AMC aren't going to stick their oar in - they're the money men, the overseerers of a whole channel - they're not writers, they're not directors, they're not actors, so I hope they leave the creative stuff well enough alone - leave it to the people paid to do those jobs, the people who have those respective talents. Naturally, after the rough-ride we fans got during season two, our concerns are all piqued by this announcement ... but as kidgloves says, Mazzara is a straight-shooting guy, so hopefully it's nowhere near as bad/sinister/whatever as our hyperactive minds might increasingly perceive it to be. Concerned? - Yes, very much so. Just keeping my fingers crossed that AMC is paying attention to the fan & media reactions to this announcement.

[bassman]

Kurt Sotter(Sons of Anarchy Showrunner) during Darabont's departure: "No one else wants to ****ing say it, but the greed of Mad Men is killing the other two best shows on TV -- Breaking Bad and Walking Dead," Kurt Sotter after yesterday's news:"AMC is run by small-minded, bottom-line thinkers who have no appreciation or gratitude for the effort of its creative personnel," Sutter wrote. "Time and time again we see events like what happened today with Glen Mazzara. They continue to disrespect writers, shit on their audience and bury their network. Mazzara took the work-in-progress that wasWalking Dead" and turned it into a viable TV show with a future. Without him, that future is dim. Showrunners are not development executives, we're not cookie-cutter douchebags that you plug into a preexisting model. TWD will suffer. Even zombies need consistency.Mad Men and Breaking Bad will be gone soon. So will AMC. I hope their ****ing stock takes a dive and the shareholders line up [AMC president and CEO Josh] Sapan, [AMC parent Cablevision founder Charles] Dolan and [AMC president and GM Charlie] Collier and shit in their open hands. Cunts." I suppose he would know about all this....

[rgc2005]

Budget, Location Filming with a wildcat crew, and zero teen angst. By all accounts I have read AMC cannot stand having the show filmed in rural Georgia and having their "Memos" ignored. Add in the supposedly 'Racial' way they treated T-Dawg, Oscar and the introduction of Tyrese I would imagine AMC got nervous and called him on the carpet. If someone were to really dig I bet we have the same AMC exec that pulled the plug on Frank D.

[joeharley666]

Budget, Location Filming with a wildcat crew, and zero teen angst. By all accounts I have read AMC cannot stand having the show filmed in rural Georgia and having their "Memos" ignored. Add in the supposedly 'Racial' way they treated T-Dawg, Oscar and the introduction of Tyrese I would imagine AMC got nervous and called him on the carpet. If someone were to really dig I bet we have the same AMC exec that pulled the plug on Frank D. Did I miss something? What was racial about TDogg? They're grasping at straws then - - - Updated - - - Budget, Location Filming with a wildcat crew, and zero teen angst. By all accounts I have read AMC cannot stand having the show filmed in rural Georgia and having their "Memos" ignored. Add in the supposedly 'Racial' way they treated T-Dawg, Oscar and the introduction of Tyrese I would imagine AMC got nervous and called him on the carpet. If someone were to really dig I bet we have the same AMC exec that pulled the plug on Frank D. Did I miss something? What was racial about TDogg? They're grasping at straws then

[ProfessorChaos]

Kurt Sotter(Sons of Anarchy Showrunner) during Darabont's departure: "No one else wants to ****ing say it, but the greed of Mad Men is killing the other two best shows on TV -- Breaking Bad and Walking Dead," Kurt Sotter after yesterday's news:"AMC is run by small-minded, bottom-line thinkers who have no appreciation or gratitude for the effort of its creative personnel," Sutter wrote. "Time and time again we see events like what happened today with Glen Mazzara. They continue to disrespect writers, shit on their audience and bury their network. Mazzara took the work-in-progress that wasWalking Dead" and turned it into a viable TV show with a future. Without him, that future is dim. Showrunners are not development executives, we're not cookie-cutter douchebags that you plug into a preexisting model. TWD will suffer. Even zombies need consistency.Mad Men and Breaking Bad will be gone soon. So will AMC. I hope their ****ing stock takes a dive and the shareholders line up [AMC president and CEO Josh] Sapan, [AMC parent Cablevision founder Charles] Dolan and [AMC president and GM Charlie] Collier and shit in their open hands. Cunts." I suppose he would know about all this.... that's very insightful and quite revealing. i recall the contract negotiaitions for mad men getting kinda ugly, and thinking to myself then that the network was starting to get too damn greedy and controlling. add in all the total bullshit "reality" shows they've recently added (small-town security, the pitch, comic book men, freakshow, etc), and i've just about lost all respect for the network. AMC used to be hands down the best network on television. i'm pretty concerned about where all their great original shows are heading. i'm glad that breaking bad is ending this summer, even though it's one of my favorite shows. the story of walter has just about run its course and it'd be great for this stellar show to go out on top. also, i don't want to see the show influenced by these clowns running this ship into the ground. mad men totally sucked over the last two seasons, i've pretty much wrote that show off. however, the walking dead and hell on wheels are both shows i enjoy and i really hate to see the shows themselves suffer due to the incompetence of some greedy ass-clowns. in my opinion, this is not good news concerning mazzara. while i enjoyed the first season and the beginning of season two, i feel the show really found its stride with mazarra at the helm since the last part of season two. cutting ties with him may eventually prove to be a wise move, but i can't really see it that way at the moment.

[facestabber]

I will go on record as being concerned/disappointed. As Minion stated above, probably not worth worrying about at this point sighting Durabont's departure. But I can't help but be upset about this. This show is rolling on all cylinders at this point and this tells me that there are some behind the scenes issues. That usually is never a good thing. Alot of quality shows have been ruined by suits that think they know more than they do. Mazarra is leaving a show that is red hot which tells me AMC is screwing with stuff. Bad thing is if Glen had a good relationship with the actors on the show we may start getting more defections similar to Demumm(sp) I guess I need to go back to positive thinking lessons.

[MinionZombie]

Of course, Gale Anne Hurd and Kirkman are tough cookies, so they'll be fighting for the purity of the show. Indeed, I'd wager that the cast and crew would band together to fight against a tough situation. I would really like to know what these "creative differences" were/are though - not knowing leaves it open to total speculation and fan fear.

[bassman]

I would really like to know what these "creative differences" were/are though - not knowing leaves it open to total speculation and fan fear. I think it's safe to say "creative differences" is just a cover for money issues. Several other showrunners/producers have posted on Twitter and the like that AMC's heads are notoriously impossible to deal with and pinch pennies at every opportunity. Even for the highest rated show of all time. Like Prof mentioned, with Breaking Bad ending this year, the continuing addition of poor reality shows, and these reports of AMC's stupidity, I think the network is circling the drain at this point. Unfortunately that means that TWD will start to suffer. Oh well....at least we got three good seasons. In the nineties we would have all laughed at the mention of a good zombie tv series breaking records....

[kidgloves]

I think it's safe to say "creative differences" is just a cover for money issues. Several other showrunners/producers have posted on Twitter and the like that AMC's heads are notoriously impossible to deal with and pinch pennies at every opportunity. Even for the highest rated show of all time. Like Prof mentioned, with Breaking Bad ending this year, the continuing addition of poor reality shows, and these reports of AMC's stupidity, I think the network is circling the drain at this point. Unfortunately that means that TWD will start to suffer. Oh well....at least we got three good seasons. In the nineties we would have all laughed at the mention of a good zombie tv series breaking records.... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This

[bassman]

Something that just crossed my mind.... It would make sense for them to promote someone currently working on the show into the showrunner position. While he may not know everything about running the production of a show, isn't heavily involved with the writing, and it's his first show(I think), Nicotero has really risen through the ranks since the show began. What are the chances that he ends up replacing Mazzara? It's an extremely long shot, I know, just throwing it out there.