Other long-standing cast members included Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Rick befriends Morgan Jones and travels alone to Atlanta before finding his wife Lori, son Carl, and his police partner and best friend Shane Walsh in the woods with other survivors.

After being attacked by walkers at night, the whole group travels back to Atlanta to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) building, but find from the sole remaining scientist that no cure yet exists for the pandemic.

Paul "Jesus" Rovia invites them to trade supplies with Hilltop if they can help end the threat of the extortionist Saviors led by a man named Negan.

The Coalition leads a revolution against Pamela when she tries to sacrifice the lower classes to a horde containing more intelligent walker variants; in the aftermath, Rosita dies of a bite, Negan is accepted by Maggie as an ally, and Ezekiel takes over as governor.

[133] On December 1, 2010, Deadline Hollywood reported that Darabont had fired his writing staff, including executive producer Charles "Chic" Eglee, and planned to use freelance writers for the second season.

[134] Kirkman called the announcement "premature" and clarified that Eglee left to pursue other projects when Darabont decided to stay on as showrunner, and no definitive plans had been made regarding the writing staff for the second season.

"[139] Scott M. Gimple succeeded Mazzara as showrunner for the fourth season,[140] with new writers joining the writing staff, such as Curtis Gwinn, Channing Powell, and Matt Negrete.

[141] In January 2018, it was announced that Gimple would be promoted to the newly created position of Chief Content Officer of the entire Walking Dead franchise, and that Angela Kang would replace him as showrunner beginning with the ninth season.

As part of an expansive campaign to advertise and heighten anticipation for the premiere, AMC and Fox International Channels coordinated a worldwide zombie invasion event on October 26, 2010.

"[183][184] Hurd describes additional steps taken to increase efficiency and cut production costs: "If you use vehicles that get better gas mileage, that are electric or hybrids, you're going to pay a lot less in fuel.

[192] On May 20, 2021, it was announced, following the closure of the Fox channel in the UK and Ireland, that the eleventh and final season would instead be released on the Star hub on Disney+ the day after episodes air in the United States.

It was also released as a limited edition Blu-ray, packaged as a miniature version of the Governor's zombie head aquarium tank designed by Greg Nicotero and sculpted by McFarlane Toys.

That site's consensus states, "Blood-spattered, emotionally resonant, and white-knuckle intense, The Walking Dead puts an intelligent spin on the overcrowded zombie subgenre.

Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly, described the series as "a nighttime soap", comparing it to "a parody of a Samuel Beckett play" that had very little sense of direction and few appearances of walkers.

[234] Recognizing the overall season, Kevin Yeoman of Screen Rant offered praise saying "the writers succeeded in unshackling themselves from the intermittent monotony brought about by the serial nature of the show".

The site's consensus states, "The palpable terror and visceral thrills continue in the third season of The Walking Dead, along with a deeper sense of the people who inhabit its apocalyptic landscape.

The site's consensus states, "Consistently thrilling, with solid character development and enough gore to please grindhouse fans, this season of The Walking Dead continues to demonstrate why it's one of the best horror shows on television".

The site's consensus states, "Thanks to a liberal dose of propulsive, bloody action and enough compelling character moments to reward longtime fans, The Walking Dead's fifth season continues to deliver top-notch entertainment.

The site's consensus is, "Increased character depth and effective world-building helps The Walking Dead overcome a tiresome reliance on excessive, gratuitous violence.

The site's consensus states "The Walking Dead's eighth season energizes its characters with some much-needed angst and action, though it's still occasionally choppy and lacking forward-moving plot progression.

[306] Wizards of the Coast worked with AMC to include characters and elements of The Walking Dead, into Magic: The Gathering as part of a 2020 "Secret Lair" card set.

[307] Due to its popularity, The Walking Dead has inspired dozens of parodies and spoofs featured on YouTube channels like Bad Lip Reading and television series such as Saturday Night Live[308][309] and Mad TV.

[311] The series's cast was shown the parody at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013, and David Morrissey—who portrays the Governor— reacted by saying he now understood why so many people would walk up to him on the street and blurt, "Hey, La-Bibbida-Bibba-Dum!"

There had been reported difficulties in the production of the second season, including disputes over planned budget cuts and executive meddling, and it was known that Darabont and AMC had several discussions relating to these factors.

[315] As stated in Darabont's filing, he had initially entered into a contract with AMC to have a third-party studio produce the series, from which he would have obtained 12.5% of that entity's profits, after standard deductions.

Darabont's lawyers sought to gain information from AMC on their other series, specifically Breaking Bad and Mad Men, to obtain a "fair market value" for The Walking Dead.

The second suit contended that AMC purposely manipulated some of its licensing fees that should go to Darabont, such as revenue from digital sales and from overseas markets, and sought an addition US$10 million in damages.

[337] During filming of season 8 in July 2017, stuntman John Bernecker was performing a 21-foot drop but ended up missing padded cushions and instead fell onto the concrete floor, sustaining a serious head injury.

[339] The judge presiding the lawsuit dismissed AMC's claims that it was not responsible since Bernecker was in full control of setting up the stunt, allowing the case to proceed to a jury trial.