UPDATE: 01/09/12
Frank Darabont has come forward to share his original plans for the FallĀ of AtlantaĀ story (via AICN) and he clariffied that it was intended as the second season opener, and not as an eventual web series.
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While āThe Walking Deadā has continued to be one of the top rated series on AMC, the networkās decision to remove Frank Darabont as the showrunner has continued to cast a long shadow over the show. And during the weaker parts of the second season, several critics openly wondered whether the glacial pace of the story was due to Darabontās departure and the long rumored budget cuts.
According to actor Sam Witwer, AMC also scrapped Darabontās planned āWalking Deadā prequel web series second seasonĀ flashback episodeĀ in which Witwer would have reprised his cameo role from the pilot.
During an interview about the upcoming second season of āBeing Human,ā Witwer told a Horror Hound Magazine correspondent (via Paranormal Pop Culture) that ā[Darabont] said to me, āLook, I think it would be really cool to tell a prequel story about how Atlanta fell, do āBlack Hawk Down,ā but with zombies, have a few main characters pass through, but the lead will be you. Youāre a soldier and all these horrible things happen, and the chain of command breaks down, and, eventually, you have to take out your superior officer. Then, eventually, in the end, you get bit.ā Heās pitching me this. āYouāre crawling and you crawl into this tank and you have a grenade and youāre going to blow yourself up, but you set the grenade next to you and you die. Then, we reprise the scene from the pilot, where Rick [Grimes] gets in the tank and thereās a zombie there.'ā
Witwer added āIf you look closely, I played that zombie, because we were setting up this prequel we were going to do. If you watch the pilot of āThe Walking Dead,ā thatās me in the tank as the zombie, and then Rick blasts him and he gets deafened, and he gets that grenade which saves him at the end of the season.āĀ Ā
āItās not happening now,ā continued Witwer. āWhy? Because AMC wanted to save a few bucks. That is just one example of the kind of cool, awesome forethought, [Darabont] has put into this show, that is now absolutely written off. For me, it doesnāt matter much because Iām busy doing āBeing Human.ā We were going to schedule things around. Iām not lamenting the loss of a job, Iām lamenting the loss of an amazing idea. And there are dozens and dozens of amazing ideas just like that, which are now gone.ā
āAnd this is all because people wanted to save money,ā elaborated Witwer. āThis is all because they felt it necessary to cut the budget by ā when you add in the tax breaks theyāre pocketing ā like 35%. Really? Budget cut? So, Iām not happy about it. And hereās the thing, itās not as simple as donāt support āThe Walking Deadā because there are a lot of good people on that set. People who are busting ass to entertain all of usā¦ People who have been threatened to not speak out over what happened. Itās uglyā¦ itās really ugly what happened.ā
Witwer also spoke out about Darabontās dismissal from the series and left no doubt where he stands.
āIām furious at them for this, because Frank is my friend, heās my buddy. Not only is he my buddy, but heās a guy Iām extremely loyal to, because he gave me a shot with āThe Mist,ā when I didnāt have a hell of a lot going on. Hereās a guy who gets his cast and crew together and gives AMC a show, packages it all together, which is way cheaper than anywhere else because everyone is working way under their pay grade. Why? Because they want to and love working with Frank Darabont.ā
Paranormal Pop Culture posted the extended video of Witwerās comments; which is well worth watching.
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New episodes of āThe Walking Deadā resume on Sunday, February 12.