Jack Black Shoots Down ‘The Walking Dead’, Calls Popular Show A ‘Zombie Soap Opera’


In the age of zombies, where every other television series, movie, and novel features the shambling re-animated ghouls, Goosebumps actor Jack Black has something to say about everyone’s favorite zombie series, The Walking Dead — it’s more soap opera than scare-fest.

In an interview with USA Today, 46-year-old Jack Black admits that while he and his wife, Tanya Haden, watch the show religiously, they do so more out of habit than actual interest. Black cites The Walking Dead‘s downfall to the firing of the show’s original developer and executive-producer, Frank Darabont, who, despite creating a “work of art” with the series’ pilot episode — which he wrote and directed — was shuffled off the series due to alleged budget cuts and a strained relationship with AMC execs.

“Frank Darabont created a masterpiece and it has kind of got pretty schlocky. But now we cannot help it. The momentum has carried us. We have to know what has happened to our favorite soap opera. It’s very Days of Our Lives with Zombies.”

Though Jack Black and his wife continue to watch The Walking Dead, he also believes the show has become nothing more than a moneygrab, according to Film-News.

“I love that show. It’s really a soap opera that me and my lady have become addicted to. It’s become such a soap opera. And it’s just a money grab. There’s no arc. It’s sort of heading to this conclusion.”

Jack Black stars in the newly released horror-comedy Goosebumps, which saw an opening weekend earning of $23.5 million, reports Deadline. In Goosebumps, Black plays mysterious author of the Goosebumps book series, R.L. Stine. When teenager Zach Cooper, played by Dylan Minnette, accidentally releases all of the monsters from within the pages of Stine’s books, it’s up to him, Stine, and Stine’s daughter, Hannah — played by Odeya Rush — to return the monsters to their books. Of the monsters in his newest film, Jack Black says the scariest of them all is his evil nemesis, Slappy the Dummy (also voiced by Black) — “he’s diabolical.”

What doesn’t scare Black, however, are slow, shambling creatures like The Walking Dead‘s zombies, according to USA Today.

“Zombies are creepy. And so slow. How scared can you be? You put them all in the same category: zombies, Frankenstein, mummies — slow-moving ghouls. Only dangerous if you fall asleep on them.”

According to Rob Letterman, director of Goosebumps, Jack Black isn’t much of a scaredy-cat, saying of his long-time friend, “he actually doesn’t scare easily.” Black does admit to being afraid of a few monsters, saying that after having watched Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror Alien when he was 10-years-old, that he couldn’t sleep for a month, and that at 10-years-old, he just wasn’t ready for what he calls “the most terrifying movie ever made.” Black says he also has a scary soft-spot reserved for Dracula, especially the one played by Gary Oldman in 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, quipping that one fast-moving, fang-wielding vampire would have no problem taking on an entire army of slow-moving, buffoonish Frankensteins.

Even though Black feels The Walking Dead has become more of a soap opera than anything remotely scary, he still watches it. What about the series’ offshoot Fear the Walking Dead, though? He says that while he’s heard it’s good, the creators really dropped the ball when it came to naming the show.

“It’s such a lazy title. I’ve heard it’s really good, we might have to watch it. But we’ll wait until we’re out of things to watch before we get on another ‘Walking Dead’ show.

Are you a fan of The Walking Dead, or do you concur with Jack Black about the hugely successful zombie apocalypse television series?

[Image Credit: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images]

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