Amazon Inks Deal With ‘Walking Dead’ Creator Robert Kirkman

Amazon has closed on an overall deal with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman that includes a first-look deal with Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment. Kirkman and Skybound, the parties behind The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and Outcast, will develop television projects to debut exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

Skybound Entertainment’s co-presidents of film and television, Bryan and Sean Furst, will oversee the Amazon project slate in conjunction with Kirkman and collaborator David Alpert.

“Robert is a gifted storyteller who shares our passion for elevated genre storytelling that pushes boundaries,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, head of event series, Amazon Studios. “Robert and the team at Skybound are some of the most innovative and fearless creatives in the business. Together, we plan to explore immersive worlds and bold ideas for Prime Video.”

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Kirkman has seen major success in the adaptation of his comic book titles into TV series. In 2010, The Walking Dead was developed into an AMC television series. Kirkman is also consulting producer of after-show The Talking Dead.

Kirkman is co-creator, writer and producer of Fear the Walking Dead and executive producer of the AMC series Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics, and pre-apocalyptic drama Five Year, which is being developed for multiple territories including Germany, India and Italy. 

Kirkman’s comic Outcast airs on Cinemax.

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“At Skybound Entertainment we strive to tell the best stories in the most unique and creative ways in an effort to always break new ground,” said Kirkman. “A forward thinking company like Amazon is the perfect home for us. Their new foray into genre fiction has us at peak optimism for what can be accomplished during this unprecedented partnership.”

Kirkman will produce the film Invincible, based on his popular comic book. The project will be written, directed and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg for Universal Pictures.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.