Budget for ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ is quadruple of the original series

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 — The budget for television series The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, set to air next month, is reportedly the highest of any show for the zombie franchise.

Quoting the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Screen Rant reported that the show’s total budget stood at US$82 million (RM381.3 million) or about US$13.7 million (RM63.7 million) per episode.

This amount is a bit higher than the budget of the other recent spinoff, The Walking Dead: Dead City, which was about US$72 million (RM334.8 million) in total, or US$12 million (RM55.8 million) per episode.

With that, The Ones Who Live’s budget is quadruple per-episode than that of the original series.

When it first started in 2010, The Walking Dead reportedly cost around US$3 million (RM13.95 million) per episode to make.

Its budget was US$3.4 million (RM15.8 million) per episode, but the cost later dropped to about US$2.75 million (RM12.79 million) for later seasons.

Part of the reason why this spinoff’s budget is so high is the costs of TV shows are rising due to inflation and CGI, production values and advertising necessary to remain competitive.

Salaries of casts also accounted for a significant portion of the budget.

The series, which will air from February 25, will see the return of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira).

Lincoln is arguably the biggest star to come out of the franchise. He had initially departed The Walking Dead after season nine, before returning for a brief cameo at the end of season 11.