In early 2025, AMC greenlit a new horror-based competition series that will air on Shudder, the network's home for horror, thrillers, and the supernatural. Walking Dead Award-winning SFX master and director Greg Nicotero will serve as showrunner for the unscripted series.
AMC Networks announced the six-part Guts & Glory in April 2025. The series is said to “flip the script on the traditional competition show, thrusting players into an immersive horror experience full of unexpected challenges. The new series blends the intensity of a horror film with the pressure of a survival game where contestants are confronted with their fears in various scenarios.”
Nicotero announced the premiere date of September 9, 2025, for the first two episodes of Guts & Glory at the 2025 Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon panel at SDCC. The remaining four episodes will be released weekly on Tuesday. Nicotero attended SDCC to promote season 3 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, for which he executive produces and directs.
Nicotero discussed Guts & Glory with Comicbook.com in the interview below. He is a huge fan of competition series, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Destination X, and thought a straight horror competition has never been done, but it certainly needs to be. He took elements of some of his favorites, Survivor, Blair Witch, and Halloween Horror Nights, and combined them to come up with the new series.
The debut of Guts & Glory coincides with Shudder 10, the channel's 10th anniversary celebration that will feature the most terrifying slate to date. The celebration includes special fan events, nationwide screenings, custom merch, and more. Shudder had a banner year in 2024, claiming six titles on the Rotten Tomatoes 2024 Horror List, including the #1 spot with Late Night With the Devil.
Guts & Glory is an AMC Studios production with Nicotero and Brian Witten from Monster Agency Productions, Chris Wagner from White Label, and Andrew Molina from Salaryman. Jeffrey F. January serves as co-executive producer.
Monster Agency Production is Nicotero and Witten's banner, which is currently working on a new sci-fi series, Black Vault, based on Alma Katsu's novella. Also in development is an espionage thriller, Bannerman, based on the renegade assassin series written by John Maxim.
Nicotero will also executive produce and direct the pilot of Monarch Media's adaptation of Robert McCammon's sci-fi novel, Swan Song. The story is set in the aftermath of a nuclear war, which is followed by an evolution of mankind. The novel tied Stephen King's Misery for the Bram Stoker award in 1987.
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