Ahead of the premiere of the eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead, the long-running legal battle between AMC and original showrunner Frank Darabont has finally come to an end.
As reported by Deadline, the cable network has stumped up a whopping $200 million cash settlement to Darabont, along with “future revenue sharing related to certain future streaming exhibition of The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead.”
The Shawshank Redemption helmer Darabont was instrumental in bringing The Walking Dead to the small screen, spending some four years developing the comic book adaptation before finally bringing it to life at AMC in 2010. However, he was then fired as showrunner by AMC ahead of the second season as the company sought to reduce the show’s budget, and subsequently filed suit for profit participation payments as the series went on to become the biggest show on television.
Although the main Walking Dead series is coming to an end with its eleventh season, AMC is already working on numerous spinoff shows and movies set in The Walking Dead universe – all of which would presumably have found their way into Darabont’s lawsuit had AMC not agreed a settlement here.
Previously on The Walking Dead, our survivors confronted past demons and combated new threats, with friendships and relationships suffering from the mounting collateral damage that is the apocalypse. Alexandria is severely compromised, left a former shell of the home it once was from the carnage and devastation left behind by the Whisperers.
Now all who live in Alexandria struggle to refortify it and feed its increasing number of residents, which include the survivors from the fall of the Kingdom and the burning of Hilltop; along with Maggie and her new group, the Wardens. Alexandria has more people than it can manage to feed and protect. Their situation is dire as tensions heat up over past events and self-preservation rises to the surface within the ravaged walls.
They must secure more food while they attempt to restore Alexandria before it collapses like countless other communities they have come across throughout the years. But where and how? More haggard and hungrier than ever before, they must dig deeper to find the effort and strength to safeguard the lives of their children, even if it means losing their own.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to those at Alexandria, Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko, and Princess are still being held captive by mysterious soldiers who are members of a larger and unforthcoming group.
The Walking Dead season 11 begins on Sunday August 22nd.
