Creating a Zombie Soap Opera | StarTalk

What I did is I made it a super. I was like, what if people kiss while zombies are trying to eat them? And then people were like, I like this romance stuff. Relationships, really? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm interested in that kind of stuff. I mean, I'm a huge fan of zombie lore and zombie stories.

And, uh, there had never been, uh, you know, the zombie movie that never ends. You know, is what I've always said. Walking Dead, is there had never been a story that focused on the characters and showed how they live from year to year to year after the fall of civilization. You know, most zombie stories are about the initial outbreak and things happen, and they try to survive and they live in a place for a while and then they all die or they all ride off into the sunset. You never see them again.

And to me, uh, you know, not only like, like seeing people try to find food and trying to build shelter and trying to protect their families, that stuff's very fascinating. But also, like living in these extreme situations and just changing fundamentally how we interact with each other and how we relate to each other. And, you know, because in The Walking Dead, it becomes very scary very quickly to encounter a new person, let alone a zombie. You know, because you have no idea what other people have done to survive and how their mindset has changed because of this, and whether they want to rob you or kill you or whatever is happening.

And so seeing people, you know, struggle through this world, you know, was, you know, fascinating to me. And as a writer, when I'm like, oh, I don't know what happens next, I think, well, hopefully there'll be some readers out there, viewers out there that also want to see what happens next. Yeah, so what it does is you are living in extreme conditions when the zombies are coming. And it's not just one thing. It's not just a flood or a crash. These things are out there and they want your brains.

So what does your study of anthropology tell you about how we civilized people behave under those conditions? Um, my people say that, uh, maybe human beings aren't as inclined to sort of kill one another under, uh, conditions of scarcity as we think they are. Really? Yeah, that's very hopeful. Yeah, it's hopeful. Yeah, I don't believe any of it, but it's hopeful.