The Walking Dead Loses a Show Front Runner in Season 4

AMC officially picked up The Walking Dead for a fourth season today and also announced that a show front funner will be leaving for good. Read the announcement below. 

Today, AMC announces the season 4 pick-up of The Walking Dead. 

AMC also jointly announces with Glen Mazzara today that for future seasons, the two parties have mutually decided to part ways.  Glen guided the series creatively for seasons 2 and 3.  AMC is grateful for his hard work.  We are both proud of our shared success. 

Both parties acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward, and conclude that it is best to part ways.  This decision is amicable and Glen will remain on for post-production on season 3.

Producer Gale Anne Hurd had this to say:

I am appreciative and grateful to Glen for his hard work on ‘The Walking Dead.’ I am supportive of AMC and Glen's decision and know that the series is in great hands with one of the most talented and dedicated casts and crews in the business. I look forward to the show's continued success.

The statement from Robert Kirkman, series producer and comic book creator:

I am in full support of both AMC and Glen Mazzara in the decision they have come to and believe the parties came to this decision in the best interest of the future of the show.  I thank Glen for his hard work and appreciate his many contributions to The Walking Dead and look forward to working with him as we complete post production on Season 3.  I am also excited to begin work on another spectacular season of this show that I know means so much to so many people. This show has always been the result of a wide range of extremely talented men and women working tirelessly to produce their best work collectively.  I believe the future is bright for The Walking Dead.  Thank you to the fans for your continued support. 

For an incredibly popular show (the most popular show on television as of this writing) there sure has been a ton of drama on the back end. This is the second "parting of ways" of a showrunner (the person responsible for the day to day operation of a television series) since the beginning of the series, as tension between the original showrunner Frank Darabont and AMC resulted in Darabont stepping down in July 2011. Now with the exit of Glen Mazzara one can't help but wonder... who's the problem here? "Difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward"? We all know that season 2 showed fans a bit more soap opera and less zombie mayhem than either season 1 or the first part of season 3, but the exact nature of the "difference of opinion" is an intriguing question. We will be watching intently for information about the replacement for Mazzara, and what that means for the direction of the now-confirmed Season 4.