When ‘The Walking Dead‘ aired many people weren’t sure why the “Walkers” weren’t called “Zombies” and Robert Kirkman has now gone on record once again to state that zombies just don’t exist in the televised version of his undead covered world. Obviously, the flesh-eating undead within are zombies, but what I mean to say is that in Kirkman’s universe there was no Romero to make ‘Night of the Living Dead’ which inspired generations of zombie fans. Horror clearly existed as a genre but this form of monster hadn’t been created so fans of the shows don’t know that they need to just shoot them in the head to end their existence. At least, not right off the bat.
You can watch the full interview where he talks about this below!
If you don’t want to watch the video or are someplace that you shouldn’t be checking it out, like say work, you can read his commentary below:
“Zombie lore is very popular and we wanted to avoid the notion of, hey, why isn’t that character just shooting that zombie in the head because of all those movies I saw? We wanted to give you a sense that the walking dead takes place in a universe where zombie fiction doesn’t exist. No one has seen a Romero movie so they can’t get the rules from that. We felt like having people not use that word would kind of separate and make it more clear.”
Kirkman has stated this sentiment before but for those who haven’t followed his interviews, it is a fun little tidbit. Especially, as fans of the comic know, the word “zombie” does exist in it even if it isn’t overly used.
Was this lack of zombie fiction something you already knew about or do you think it was a fun piece of information that helps you further enjoy ‘The Walking Dead’? Do you think a series like this would be as interesting if it took place in our world where the rules were already known through the multitude of movies, television shows, comics, books, and video games on the subject? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Screen Rant
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!