Is 'Walking Dead' Spinoff Destined to Fail?

What's better than one horde of zombies? Two hordes of zombies! For those who aren't getting enough of a zombie fix from The Walking Dead , last September's announcement that AMC was developing a Walking Dead spinoff must have been as good a reason as ever to stock up on champagne and katanas. Then again, those who of us who make use of the phrase "zombie fix" don't really need a reason to stock up on champagne and katanas. You never know when the end might come. Well, now it's official: the series has been greenlit and AMC has hired Dave Erickson as showrunner, bringing us one step closer to following yet another group of survivors through a zombie-ridden, post-Apocalyptic, vaguely grey-toned America.

That is, if it's a hit. Erickson's last AMC project was the short-lived Low Winter Sun, which was canceled by the network after only one season. It was the second of only two shows that AMC canceled during the freshman season, if that gives you a hint as to what a failure it was. Another project, Canterbury's Law, only produced six episodes of a planned 13 episode season before being cancelled and that's not entirely the fault of the Writer's Strike of 2007.

Bringing Erickson on as a showrunner may seem like a leap of faith for AMC, but he's written several successful episodes of Sons of Anarchy and he'll be working alongside Walking Dead executive producers Robert Kirkman and Gale Anne Hurd to ensure that Walking Dead is a franchise that will never die... and that, if it does, it'll just get back up and start limping toward you again.

Like the upcoming spinoff How I Met Your Dad , Walking Dead's second series won't feature any of the original characters and no casting news has been announced just yet. But, based on the celebrities that Erickson has worked with in the past, there are a few faces we'd like to see tear their way through an army of zombies (and emerge covered in blood and guts).

Charlie Hunnam

Erickson worked with Hunnam on Sons of Anarchy and Hunnam is no stranger to characters in a post-apocalyptic world. He played Raleigh Becket in the hit movie Pacific Rim, who co-piloted giant robots in order to fight the threat of the Godzilla-like aliens emerging from the ocean. An itty bitty zombie is nothing compared to a Kaiju. A hundred itty bitty zombies wouldn't even cover the bottom of a Kaiju's foot.

Mark Strong

Strong worked with Erickson on Low Winter Sun and his film credits include Sherlock Holmes, Green Lantern, and Kick-Ass. In all three movies, he played the best kind of villain — the kind that stole every scene he was in. Combine that with the fact that he was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for his fight scenes in Sherlock Holmes and Kick-Ass and the only question here is how have they not called him yet?

Sprague Grayden

Grayden worked with Erickson on Sons of Anarchy and on Low Winter Sun, but she's best known for her role as Kristi in Paranormal Activity 2. If there's anything that will prepare you for spending most of your time running away from rotting bodies trying to eat you alive, it's starring in a Paranormal Activity movie. It's a toss-up on whether being murdered by evil spirits or eaten alive by mindless zombies is a worse fate, but hopefully we can save that question for her first Walking Dead spinoff panel.

Image: AMC; Tumblr