HBO Passed On Making The Walking Dead For A Surprising Reason

HBO has a reputation for being the king of television, but over the years, it's let some great shows slip through its hands. The network passed on "Breaking Bad" in what creator Vince Gilligan once called the worst meeting he's ever had. It turned down "Yellowjackets" for being too similar to "Euphoria." And it lost out on an absolute cash cow when it didn't pick up "The Walking Dead."

As with "Breaking Bad," HBO's loss on "The Walking Dead" was AMC's gain. Now, HBO eventually found its zombie show with "The Last of Us" (even if it's substantially different than "Walking Dead"), but it missed the chance to be near ground zero of the 2000s and early 2010s zombie resurgence.

Why? According to "Walking Dead" executive producer Greg Nicotero (speaking in a 2012 interview with the Huffington Post), HBO had some concerns about the material. Specifically, the network thought it was too violent! Indeed, Nicotero said that both HBO and NBC were considering picking up "The Walking Dead," but wanted the violence of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard's comic turned down. And sure, Kirkman does love splatter violence; "Invincible" may be less bleak than "The Walking Dead," but it's no less gory.

Now, NBC, I get. It's a broadcast network, so it, by nature, had to be more restrictive about what it let air. But HBO? That's a cable network, and one that built its brand on violent and vulgar shows like "Oz," "The Sopranos," and "Deadwood." Plus, "The Walking Dead" is a zombie story; of course there'll be blood and guts. 

Obviously, the "Walking Dead" creative team decided neither network was a good fit. The show eventually found its home at AMC, which ordered the "Walking Dead" pilot in January 2010 and then premiered it on Halloween that year.

The whole premise of "The Walking Dead" is that it's a zombie movie that goes on and on and on. Take out the continuing narrative, and there's nothing too unique about it. The only way to properly adapt the story is television — but as HBO and NBC showed, it also needed the right network.

In a December 2024 interview with Collider, Kirkman credited original "Walking Dead" showrunner Frank Darabont with getting the series made at all. According to Kirkman, Darabont had stumbled across the "Walking Dead" comic at the House of Secrets (a comic store in Burbank, California) and thought the serialized drama was a perfect story to bring to TV. He wasn't the only one. As "Walking Dead" producer Gale Ann Hurd recalled to Variety in 2016:

"What attracted me to [Robert Kirkman's] comic book series is that it is a story about characters on a journey into this new world, and constantly trying to figure out not only how to survive but what's important to them."

But as passionate as Darabont and co. were, they still had trouble convincing TV networks. Darabont brought the series to NBC because he had a deal with the network at the time. However, its problems with the material extended beyond the violence. One NBC executive thought the "Walking Dead" comics should be adapted as a police procedural where, apparently, Sheriff Rick Grimes and a partner would solve zombie-related crimes every week. Another asked: "Do there have to be zombies?"

Despite their reservations about the violence, HBO was apparently more interested. Kirkman claimed to Collider that there was a "bidding war" between AMC and HBO for "The Walking Dead" in the end. (We all know who won that.) Here's how Kirkman put it:

"AMC and HBO kind of got into a competition of, 'We'll give Robert this.' 'No, we'll give Robert this.' 'No, we'll give Robert this.' 'No, we'll give Robert this,' and we just kept going, 'Well, HBO gave us this,' and then AMC would go, 'All right.' And then to HBO, we'd be like, 'AMC gave us this,' and HBO'd go, 'All right.'"

However, HBO still impacted "The Walking Dead" indirectly. Darabont's initial choice to play Rick was not Andrew Lincoln, but Thomas Jane. (Darabont had worked with Jane on "The Mist.") But Jane had to pass because he'd already signed on as the lead in "Hung," an HBO-produced comedy series about a middle-aged high school teacher who becomes a sex worker. (It lasted three seasons.)

If HBO had won the "Walking Dead" bidding war, one big difference that comes to my mind is the dialogue. HBO, ungoverned by FCC rules for public broadcasting, can let its characters swear up a storm with the seven dirty words. That means Negan would've been able to curse like he does in the comic. AMC let "The Walking Dead" get away with ultra-violence, but as a broadcast network, its hands were tied with the swearing.