The Walking Dead: Magic of the crew

It takes many people working as a crew and much work to bring together the magic we see on our screens with television series, especially The Walking Dead. It is very rarely a simple thing to create a masterpiece for television. But the team behind the powerhouse apocalypse show sure did accomplish it.

The Walking Dead rose to be a global phenomenon breaking cable records. The long-running apocalyptic series relied on so many elements for it to be made and created into the booming success it was. It’s due to its groundbreaking storytelling that TWDU has been long-running for over a decade and is still going strong.

We all have our favorite characters we can’t help but talk about, be it heroes or villains. But it can be easy to forget the people who stand on the other side of the camera who make it possible for us to grow these attachments.

The Crew of The Walking Dead

I think a fair bit of the time it is easy to forget just how many people work on a production. Due to the scale of TWD, there would have been thousands of people involved along the way. And it is thanks to Robert Kirkman being the first person to create and write the story that it snowballed to the scale in which it is today.

To have a show, we need a cast. I cannot believe just how rightly suited the actors chosen were to their characters. Even though Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) is not featured in the comics, something was seen by the heads when the actor read for Merle that led the team to create a character made just for him – what a brilliant choice! Sharon Bialy and Sherry Thomas were two of the top casting credits for the show from beginning to end, and what an amazing job they and their team did!

Things just can’t magically appear from one place to another as much as we wish they did, so a whole transportation team is needed to do the job. Transportation Coordinator Keith N. Collis with his transport captains and drivers, brought the cast and crew from place to place whilst making sure anything that was needed on set made it there safely. Thank goodness for them, as no one wants to be stuck in The Hilltop when they are needed at Oceanside!

The soundtrack to The Walking Dead is nothing less than iconic. Again, with a whole team behind them, music editor Michael Baber and composer Bear McCreary created so much of the incredible audio for the series that, hand in hand with the visuals, created a masterpiece through the art of music. Let’s not forget that insane orchestral opening theme to 1124, “Rest In Piece,” which was so awesome!

The whole of TWDU features some insane set decorations. Down to the smallest little details, such as a periodic table poster in Max’s (Margot Bingham) apartment demonstrating her love for science. Decorating the set with the right props can speak volumes about the emotions and mindsets of the characters. The sanctuary was very dark and concrete whilst, inside the Commonwealth, there were bright flowers and delicious ‘Taste of Tradition’ ice creams – I know which one I’d rather have!

TWD featured a lot of iconic haircuts. From Shane (Jon Bernthal) shaving his hair off when he began to change persona, Carol’s (Melissa McBride) short to long… then back to short doo, Ezekiel’s (Khary Payton) epic dreadlocks, and of course Eugene’s (Josh McDermitt) mullet turned braid of life. These styles took the work of an incredible team of stylists led by head Taylor Knight.

I think it is fairly safe to say there is a phenomenal amount of work that is easy to be overlooked within the series with stunts, animations, costumes, continuity, catering, and additional members and the rest of the teams. And don’t forget, on a lot of the box sets of the series, you can catch special behind-the-scenes clips and audio commentary from the cast and crew detailing things not seen in the final edit. To the entire crew of The Walking Dead, a heartfelt thank you for all of your work!

You can catch every episode of The Walking Dead with the AMC+ streaming service. Alternatively, viewers can watch the entire series with the Disney Plus streaming service.