How Will ‘The Walking Dead’ Be Affected If There Is A Writer’s Strike?

The Walking Dead is about to start production for Season 8 and fans are excited about the upcoming season. However, there is one thing that could hold things up and that is the potential of a writer’s strike.

The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Picture and Television producers are in the talking stages and May 1, 2017 is the date that has been set to come to an agreement. If an agreement cannot be met, the writer’s strike will begin the very next day. For shows like The Walking Dead, this would mean that all production would stop immediately and the schedules that have set forth would change.

At best, fans of The Walking Dead could expect a lot of re-runs.

Writers are not getting what they want and they are attempting to get better compensation for their work. There are other issues that are a factor in the potential writers’ strike, like health care benefits. Should the strike start, The Walking Dead fans will have some unfortunate circumstances to look forward to.

One of the most likely outcomes that fans of The Walking Dead can expect is a shorter season. Season 8 may be considerably shorter than a normal season if production is significantly delayed. The Walking Dead is scheduled to start production on April 25, 2017 and it would continue through to late October or early November. Normally, The Walking Dead would produce 16 episodes, which would air over two periods.

Should a writer’s strike begin and last for several months, The Walking Dead would have the choice of not having a season at all in 2017 or having a shorter season. As Comic Book points out, “given the alternative winter weather conditions which would arise in their Georgia locations, the producers may elect to cut the episode count in favor of having any sort of season at all.” There would likely also be either a decrease or a complete halt to The Walking Dead trailers.

Some of you might remember the writers’ strike of 2007-2008. Shows that were just as big as The Walking Dead were stalled for months as writers fought for what they believed was theirs. In the previous writer’s strike, the hit show Lost had only 14 episodes, compared to the usual 23 or 24 episodes per season. One effect of the writer’s strike of 2007-2008 was that there was an upsurge of reality TV shows, because production did not require writers. Big Brother had its first and only two-season year.

Regarding the potential writer’s strike for 2017, Vulture says the following.

“Both sides, per negotiating policy, have kept mum about the details of the talks, but we still have a general sense of where things stand, and where they might be heading.”

The Walking Dead fans will be terribly upset if a writer’s strike puts a hold on Season 8 starting or affects the number of episodes in the season. The worst case scenario for fans of The Walking Dead would be if there was no new season in 2017 at all. This is a possibility, but not very likely as the producers of The Walking Dead know how much they would have to lose if they held off giving their fans what they want.

One possible result of a writer’s strike is that there might be an increase in sales of The Walking Dead box sets on Amazon or subscriptions to Netflix. The Walking Dead fans will need to get their fix of Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes, and the rest of the crew and watching previous episodes is better than nothing! There could also be an increase of fans at events like Comic-Con where they can get their fix of The Walking Dead actors.

Are you worried about the 2017 season of The Walking Dead? What would you do if the season was drastically delayed?

[Featured Image by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for AMC]