AMC Hit With A New Strolling Lifeless Lawsuit Over Spinoff Income 2 Years After It Ended

Tv community AMC is being sued by Worry the Strolling Lifeless creator Dave Erickson, who claims that he was not paid as a lot out of the earnings as different contributors on the present, saying it’s a breach of contract. The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in California state courtroom, changing into the most recent in a sequence of authorized disputes over accounting and earnings from The Strolling Lifeless.

AMC is thought for airing a number of the most acclaimed TV exhibits of the twenty first century, akin to Breaking Dangerous and Mad Males, however The Strolling Lifeless is its largest franchise. Primarily based on the comedian e book sequence by Robert Kirkman, the TV adaptation kicked off in 2010 with The Strolling Lifeless, which ran for 12 years and spawned a number of spinoffs, together with Worry the Strolling Lifeless.

This parallel story follows a distinct set of characters in the identical world, as they expertise the start of the zombie apocalypse and the fallout, airing from 2015 to 2023. Now, two years after Worry the Strolling Lifeless‘s ending, Erickson is suing AMC to pressure a change within the formulation by means of which his backend funds are calculated and compensate him for unspecified damages.

Erickson’s attorneys, Aaron Liskin and Nick Soltman, inform The Hollywood Reporter: “Dave Erickson created an enormous hit for AMC in Worry the Strolling Lifeless, increasing The Strolling Lifeless Universe and cementing AMC because the zombie community […] [Despite] extraordinary success, Mr. Erickson has not obtained a single greenback in earnings from AMC and, absent this motion, he by no means will.“

Erickson’s criticism claims that he has not been paid any cash out of his revenue participation, and that whereas AMC has conveyed to him that Worry the Strolling Lifeless has a nine-figure deficit as of 2025, different events have been paid a minimum of $49 million. The showrunner additionally says that his newest assertion exhibits a deficit of $185 million, with AMC capping the present’s imputed license payment however not its bills.

This lawsuit comes 4 years after AMC paid a settlement of $200 million to The Strolling Lifeless sequence creator Frank Darabont. Robert Kirkman, with government producers Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert, additionally sued the community over revenue participation and reportedly noticed their backend funds improved, suggesting Erickson has an excellent likelihood of receiving further compensation in some type.

These numerous plaintiffs and their reps have advised, at completely different instances, that AMC postpone defining the phrases of the creatives’ backend funds and modified adjusted gross receipts to see how effectively exhibits akin to Worry the Strolling Lifeless would do first. This “is additional proof of AMC’s unhealthy religion and efforts to make the series-creators’ revenue participation meaningless,” says the brand new lawsuit.