George Romero Thinks "The Walking Dead" Is 'Just a Soap Opera'

Ouch.

Image via AMC

This has got to sting. In a new interview for the Halloween editon of The Big Issue, zombie movie king George Romero revealed that he's been asked to direct multiple episodes of The Walking Dead, but has always turned it down because he believes the show to be "basically...just a soap opera." Remember, this is the guy who wrote and directed Night of the Living Dead, so he's a huge influence for TWD.

"They asked me to do a couple of episodes of ‘The Walking Dead,’ but I didn’t want to be a part of it," Romero explained. "Basically it’s just a soap opera with a zombie occasionally. I always used the zombie as a character for satire or a political criticism, and I find that missing in what’s happening now."

This isn't the first time Romero has spoken openly about his distaste for the show. In an interview last year, Romero commented that the show "is not my thing."

When asked about what he thinks of the prevalance of zombies in modern pop culture, Romero also pointed out the issue with their portrayal: "I guess Zack Snyder started that with the remake of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ — fast-moving zombies — but the zombies in ‘World War Z,’ my God, they’re like army ants! But in all the [advertisements] here, they never called it a zombie film...I never thought they were zombies. To me back then, zombies were those voodoo guys who were given some sort of blowfish cocktail and became slaves. And they weren’t dead, so I thought I was doing a brand new thing by raising the dead. Not that the dead haven’t been risen before… It goes back to Jesus, doesn’t it?" 

They may not have Romero's blessing, but The Walking Dead does have pretty stellar ratings to soften the blow—a reported 20 million viewers tuned in to the recent season four premiere, and the show was just confirmed to receive a fifth season pick-up. So, at least there's that.

[via Yahoo! TV]

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