Walkers, biters, roamers, lurkers, lamebrains, dead ones... we've heard the living dead called just about everything on The Walking Dead except for the most obvious term: zombie. While referring to them this way seems like a no-brainer for most of us, it hasn't crossed the minds of any of the characters on the AMC zombie drama. But there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that.
"I started the book not really using [the term 'zombie']. I was dancing around it mostly. I think Glenn says it a couple times but those were mostly slip-ups. Then I came up with the 'lurkers' and 'roamers' terminology," Kirkman details in the comic book reissue The Walking Dead DELUXE #30, per ComicBook.com. "After a while though, it felt silly to just keep using those over and over. So by the time I got into the teens and twenties on the book I thought, 'Screw it, they're zombies, I'm just going to have people call them zombies. Who cares.'"
Of why it was more important to keep the word out of the TV series, Kirkman added that Frank Darabont "didn't want to use the term ['zombie'], feeling like it wouldn't exist in this world if zombie fiction didn't exist in this world. And really, for this story to work, you can't just have people saying, 'You shoot them in the head, y'know... just like the zombies from the Romero movies!' So you HAVE to assume this is a universe where George A. Romero didn't create the modern zombie. So, we coined the term 'walkers' for the show."
In other words, Night of the Living Dead and other zombie movies never existed in the Walking Dead universe. It's probably better this way as all of the characters treat this new epidemic of the dead feasting upon the living as an entirely unheard of threat with no clues whatsoever on how to handle it.
The Walking Dead Will Live On Through Its Ongoing Spinoffs
The Walking Dead is preparing for the end of its 11-season run on AMC, but that doesn't mean we've seen the last of the Walking Dead universe. There are plans for Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride to return as Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier in their own spinoff series. As the two were always among the show's most popular characters, this should serve as good news for the longtime fans unhappy about the main series ending.
There are also no plans at this time for the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead to come to an end. It was recently reported that Kim Dickens will return as Madison Clark on that series, which was just renewed for an eighth season last month. Meanwhile, an anthology series set in the Walking Dead universe is also in the works with each episode featuring a standalone story, some of them with returning characters from the past.
The Walking Dead will return to AMC on Feb. 20 for more episodes of the eleventh and final season.