Report: The Walking Dead asked George A. Romero to direct an episode

Legendary director, writer, editor, and filmmaker George A. Romero was reportedly contacted by The Walking Dead to direct an episode of the AMC show.

The Walking Dead is a worldwide phenomenon. However, before the franchise owned the zombie market, the name associated with the genre belonged to the “King of the Zombies” George A. Romero.

Of course, movies like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and the entire string of movies were groundbreaking in exposing the undead to the masses, so it wasn’t surprising to find out that Romero had a chance to direct an episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

According to an article by Entertainment Weekly, executive producer and special effects guru Greg Nicotero and developer Frank Darabont loved the idea of bringing Romero on but it was met with hesitation.

"“Frank Darabont and I talked about it after the end of season 1. And I had a conversation with George and I said, ‘Hey, man, would you ever want to come and direct?’ This was after we’d only aired six episodes. So, the show hadn’t really even caught on. And George said, ‘No, listen, you guys have your world, and I have my world, and it’s cool. I think he really was still intending on developing some other zombie stuff. So, he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s okay.’”"

Of course, Nicotero worked with Romero on many movies in different capacities and had a great working relationship with the “King of Zombies” that helps explain how seamlessly he became such an important part of Robert Kirkman’s franchise.

Sadly, this could never happen. Romero focused on his own franchises and other projects and thought of the show as more of a soap opera than a statement and passed away on July 16, 2017 at the age of 77.

It would have been fun to see what George A. Romero would have done with an episode of the show. His amazing work as a director on six “of the Dead” movies would have made it one of the most anticipated episode of the show ever.