‘ The Walking Dead’ promises another 100 episodes

Ratings juggernaut The Walking Dead revealed on Friday fans can expect to see its increasingly rancid zombies shambling across their screens for years to come.

The AMC show, the most successful basic cable TV series in history, tells the story of sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, who leads his son Carl and an evergrowing band of survivors in a zombie apocalypse.

Showrunner Scott Gimple reminded fans on the opening night of Hollywood’s annual PaleyFest television festival that October’s season eight opener would be the 100th episode.

“The first episode, I think, is less about that we’ve reached 100 episodes; it’s more about setting up the next 100 episodes,” Gimple said.

Viewers in 125 countries will be able to witness the milestone achievement for AMC, which has aired the series since its premiere miere on

Octo- Octo- ber 31, 2010 and distributes it internationally via a deal with Fox.

Joining Gimple and his team of executive producers were 11 of the show’s stars, including Andrew Lincoln – who plays Rick – fan favorites Melissa McBride and Lauren Cohan and newcomer Tom Payne.

The focus of season six was the debut of Negan, who shocked fans as he beat one of the best- loved characters to death with his barbed- wire- covered baseball bat, “Lucille.”

In one of the most talked- about cliffhangers in cable TV history, viewers were not shown who had died and were also made to wait until the new, current season to discover that a second beloved main character had been slain.

“It was a pretty miserable day at the office,” Lincoln said of losing two major castmates at once as part of a grim opening half of season seven.

Gimple hinted that the current run, which has three episodes left, would be nowhere near as open- ended as the notorious torious cliffhanger, which thrilled many but upset a legion of fans who too took to social media to complain that theythe had been manipulated. “The end of the season is v very much the end of a chapter,”chapter he said, promising the beginbeg ning ning of a “gigantic, e epic

tale” in October.