Shocking news from the world of the goggle box: Frank Darabont has stepped down as the big boss of The Walking Dead.
Despite the fact that just last month, the man behind The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile was raving about how much he enjoyed the pace of television, it would appear that he’s no longer wanting to stay on the gruelling treadmill that is running a TV series. It’s also a shock since Darabont was just at Comic-Con talking up the show.
There’s no word on his exact reasoning for departing the series, but pulling the eject cord midway through production on the show’s 13-episode second season likely won’t help matters on the show, but he had already hired former Shield writer Glen Mazzara to be his second-in-command, so at least there’s a safe pair of hands on the rudder besides the rest of the writing team and uber producer Gale Anne Hurd. Plus, it's entirely likely he'll remain involved as a consultant - we highly doubt he's going to give up all links to his baby...
The next season of the show, by the way, is set to arrive in America on October 16 and should start over here shortly thereafter. Massive spoiler prediction: there will be zombies.