At the moment, there is a petition from fans of The Walking Dead to have the show-runner Scott M. Gimple fired from it. So far, it has managed to secure tens of thousands of signatures, which is a significant number but perhaps not so much so considering that the people who watch the series number in the millions. Regardless, the petition was launched because of a recent episode of The Walking Dead, which saw the character Carl Grimes played by Chandler Riggs being killed.
Why Is There a Petition to Have the Showrunner of The Walking Dead Fired?
For those who need a refresher, the episode featured Carl objecting to his father Rick’s chosen approach towards Negan and the Saviors. He backed up his beliefs with his choices, as shown by his choice to help a survivor named Siddiq in spite of his father’s wishes as well as his speech when Negan launched his attack on Alexandria. At the end of the episode, Carl pulled up his shirt to reveal a zombie bite, which provided a great deal of insight into his thinking over the course of its narrative.
Suffice to say that significant swathes of The Walking Dead fandom have reacted with displeasure at this particular revelation. In part, this seems to be because of upset expectations, seeing as how Carl has been set up as an eventual successor to Rick to Rick’s role as the leader of the community. However, it should also be noted that some of the outrage is fueled by a statement from Riggs’s father suggesting that his son was fired rather than it being a mutual decision to part ways as some have thought. After all, it has been known for some time that Riggs was planning to go to college, which would have taken up a great deal of his available time. However, since this doesn’t seem to have been the case, it is no wonder that people are upset, particularly since Carl is in a real sense, one of the last remaining members of the original cast of The Walking Dead.
Will This Produce the Desired Result?
With that said, it remains to be seen whether the petition will produce its desired effect or not. On the one hand, tens of thousands of signatures collected within no more than a matter of days speak of a fair amount of upset among the fans of The Walking Dead, particularly since each fan who was upset enough to sign the petition can be assumed to represent more fans who were upset but not upset enough to take that particular step. On the other hand, these numbers have to be examined based on the number of people who watch The Walking Dead on a regular basis, in which case, they are still impressive but not exactly overwhelmingly so. As a result, while the petition may or may not have an impact on the future of The Walking Dead, it seems improbable that it will be what unseats the current show-runner, though to be fair, the full impact of this petition remains to be seen, meaning that there is still plenty of time for more things to happen.
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