The Walking Dead has reached “that’s still on?!” status. The season nine premiere was last night, and it kicks off on October 7, ringing in what will be Andrew Lincoln’s last season (as an actor, there is a rumor he might come back to direct). Over the last couple years the ratings have plummeted—the show is now making the same mistake the comics made of just going on forever until people get bored with it—but AMC remains committed. They already have one spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead, and they intend to do more, plus feature films. They want a whole Walking Dead crossover cinematic universe like Marvel, except that hasn’t worked out for literally anyone else, so maybe slow your roll. But they have a whole ten year plan for it, which might have been helpful nine years ago before they mired the series in increasingly cheap shock tactics and we spent a whole goddamn season on that f*cking farm.
At least Danai Gurira is still great. And these premiere photos have informed me that Dan Fogler, aka Jacob Kowalski aka the best thing about Fantastic Beasts, is on the show now. There’s a whole bunch of people I don’t recognize who have joined since I quit watching the show—and by the goddess do I still feel a STEEP sense of relief about that—but not even for Jacob Kowalski will I tune in. That show completely lost me. Although I do hope for the best for Danai Gurira. I want her to get to do whatever she wants to do. If she wants to be on The Walking Dead forever, well, I hope she gets to do that. If, however, she leaves TWD to front a World of Wakanda spin-off, that would also be good. Better, even. In fact, I hope that happens. Give Michonne a badass send-off and then let Gurira star in her own Marvel movie.
