I suppose the peanut gallery can’t truly assess the damage until around November 20th, episode four or five of the thirteen episode season. That’s when The Walking Dead begins flying blind without Darabont’s guidance.
You need to ignore opinions about well maybe this changes little. He invested five years bringing this personal project to television. Hire anyone you want to take over, he’s taking that five years of forethought with him. It doesn’t help he decided to go off the map from the comic book canon. That was a good thing with Kirkman and Darabont together feeling their way ahead. Now its a huge liability with Kirkman alone, he simply has very little experience adapting material for teleplay, even his own work.
No one willingly walks away from a smash hit. Something off the hook just happened. Loosened tongues will wag at TCA tomorrow night and we’ll learn more.
So, yeah, I’m a panicked peanut despite having a half a second season as originally envisioned.
ADD: Previously hired Glenn Mazzara formerly of The Shield is promoted to new show runner. That was quick because they’re shooting in Atlanta, like right now. What a mess.