The Walking Dead's New Showrunner Says Scott Gimple Isn't Involved with the Day-to-Day of Season 9

The Walking Dead fans on Reddit say former showrunner Scott Gimple ruined that show as well as spin-off Fear the Walking Dead by killing off characters like Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) and Madison Clark (Kim Dickens). But they may want to lighten up, because new showrunner Angela Kang told Comicbook.com that Gimple is not very involved creatively with the show at this point due to his responsibilities as chief content officer of The Walking Dead, overseeing the expansion of the franchise.

"Just in terms of the day to day, [Scott Gimple is] very busy with the universe," Kang said. "And so, he doesn't have much to do with the day to day."

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At this point, Kang says, Gimple is more of an adviser. "He's been really great as just a person who sat in the chair, and so he gives me advice when I'm like, 'What do I do with this weird situation that came up?'" she said. "And he's like, 'Oh yeah, a thing like that happened in Season 5 and here are some options of what you might think about.'"

According to Kang, Gimple has encouraged her to come up with her own vision of the show going forward -- which, thanks to the exit of star Andrew Lincoln, will be a very different show than the one Gimple left. "He's like, 'I can't tell you what to do, you're the showrunner. You are the one who knows the story better than anybody,'" she said. But he's still an executive producer on the show, so she pitches episode outlines to him and he gives notes, as do all the executive producers.

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Kang's vision of the show is quite different than Gimple's. She's accelerating the pace and writing meaningful dialogue again, things that everyone from fans on Reddit to people actually involved in the show agree were problems towards the end of Gimple's tenure.

Redditors will probably never soften their stance on Gimple -- even though he's gone, the damage is already done, they'll say -- but they may want to judge Season 9 less harshly, because it's not his show anymore.

The Walking Dead Season 9 premieres Sunday, Oct. 7 at 9/8c on AMC.