AMC today finally reached a $200 million settlement deal with Frank Darabont and CAA, concluding the drawn out profit participation lawsuit over The Walking Dead.
According to Variety, the deal demanded that AMC fork over $200 million to Darabont and CAA, though it was agreed that the studio will continue to receive a fraction of future profits from the streaming deals tied to both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead spin-off series. With that being said, the rights for all other Walking Dead content will be removed from the plaintiff's rights.
The settlement included $57 million worth of profit participation revenue that AMC planned to pay the plaintiffs as written in their original contracts, but Darabont, who started the show, filed suit in 2013 against the network after the company dismissed him. CAA represented Darabont and thus had an additional stake in his removal. Darabont additionally filed another suit against AMC in 2018, citing further financial abuses.
The conclusion of this longstanding suit gives AMC the freedom to move forward with endless Walking Dead content, and there is a lot of it planned. Multiple live-action spin-offs are already in talks and in the works as the original show plans to end next year with Season 11. A separate spin-off series that follows Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride’s characters is already being created, and a ton of other anthology projects for the series other characters are already planned and secured. The Walking Dead’s eleventh and final season will premiere August 22nd on AMC.
