One fan sent in a letter asking Kirkman how he felt about The Walking Dead television series introducing zombie variants in the final season, noting that the live-action adaptation seemed to be deviating from Kirkman’s two ‘golden rules’ about The Walking Dead – those being: no variant zombies and no explaining the origin of the Walkers. To that, Kirkman gave a brief yet telling response:

Robert Kirkman: I’m happy to be proven wrong if these things work and end up being cool.

Walking Dead Just Introduced the Ultimate Anti-Zombie Weapon (That Can Never Work on TV)

The Walking Dead introduced an all-new weapon in the comics that can utterly obliterate entire hordes of zombies – too bad it could never work on TV.Robert Kirkman Usually Supports the TV Show’s Changes to The Walking Dead – But Not This Time

These images are visual depictions highlighting the many changes AMC’s The Walking Dead has made to the original comic series. For a more in-depth look at those changes, check out CBR’s The Walking Dead: The 10 Biggest Deviations From The Comic Book Source Material !

As previously noted, AMC’s The Walking Dead has made some drastic changes to the series’ lore – from the character development of Carol and the creation of Daryl Dixon, to even killing off Carl – and every time, Robert Kirkman seemed to offer complete and total support for those changes. Kirkman has always maintained that he likes the fact that the TV show is exploring alternate avenues when it comes to the wider storyline and characters of The Walking Dead.

That being said, AMC’s The Walking Dead never tried to change Kirkman’s aforementioned ‘golden rules’ before, and now that it has, it doesn’t seem like Kirkman has much support to offer. Saying that he’d be “happy to be proven wrong” implies that he does not agree with changing one of his two ‘golden rules’ – indeed, Kirkman made the rules for a reason.

Zombie Variants Isn’t the Only ‘Golden Rule’ AMC’s The Walking Dead Seems to be Breaking

The future of The Walking Dead series will likely unravel the mystery of the Walkers’ origin!

The fan who asked Kirkman how he felt about AMC’s The Walking Dead breaking his ‘no variants’ rule also touched on how it seems the many spin-off/continuation series will explore the origin of the Walkers. Kirkman’s answer to the first question also applied to the second, as even that’s something he’d be “happy to be proven wrong” by. But, again, that answer only confirms his discontent with the TV show breaking those ‘golden rules’ in the first place.

Robert Kirkman has always maintained that The Walking Dead wouldn’t be as cool if the zombies kept getting upgrades throughout, and he also never wanted to reveal the origin of the Walkers, as he believed most of the fun of zombie stories is the mystery of how the zombies came to be in the first place.

Unfortunately, no matter how important they are to him, Robert Kirkman’s ‘golden rules’ are not being applied to the live-action series, and The Walking Dead’s creator still isn’t sold on those changes, despite supporting nearly every other one in the past.