THE WALKING DEAD: Frank Darabont Was FIRED While Editing

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Did he walk or was he pushed? Fresh reports suggest Frank Darabont was fired from his role as showrunner at AMC‘s his zombie series The Walking Dead.

Darabont left the show just days after helping to promote the second season at Comic-Con — a move that always felt a bit strange.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Darabont was canned while working to fix a piece of unusable footage. The firing has apparently left members of the cast “scared” for their futures on the show:

In hot, sticky Atlanta, where production on the second season had been under way since June, the cast was summoned to a lunch meeting with AMC vp scripted programming Ben Davis, who confirmed that Darabont was out. The crew was briefed separately. One insider says those gathered were stunned at “the duplicity of AMC” for having used Darabont to promote the show at Comic-Con before firing him. And they were angry about the lack of explanation; they were simply told, cryptically, “This isn’t working.” Above all, they were disheartened. “It’s a crushing blow,” says the insider. “Even when you have a hit, they can still destroy you.”

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There also have been no public comments from the cast, and a source with knowledge of the situation says AMC has been “terrorizing” them and their representatives to discourage them from speaking out on Darabont’s behalf. “They’re scared,” confirms another insider. “They’re on a zombie show. They are all really easy to kill off.”

As we reported last month, Darabont was swiftly replaced by Glen Mazzara. While he’s believed to be a strong talent, an insider says that many crew members were against Darabont’s firing:

“Frank’s fingerprints are all over every single aspect of the show,” this person says. “I heard a Teamster saying, ‘How are we going to do this without Frank?’ “

Where do you stand on all this? Are you sorry to see Darabont leave, or was it a matter of time? How do you think his departure affect the show?

The Walking Dead season 2 premiere this fall on AMC

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