It’s no surprise that AMC is enamored with its number one show, The Walking Dead. The intense zombie drama is constantly on top of ratings and at the center of internet conversation. Of course, as the show prepares to kick off its seventh season, a question has begun to circulate around fans and critics alike: how many more seasons does The Walking Dead have in it?

While we can’t know specifically how much longer we’ll be following Rick and his group around, AMC doesn’t think we’ll see the end of The Walking Dead franchise for a very long time. The Wrap reports that at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, AMC Networks President and CEO Josh Sapan explained that he not only thought The Walking Dead had many more years left, but he also likened the franchise to Star Trek.

What did he mean by that? Specifically, Sapan wasn’t just referring to the long life individual Star Trek series have enjoyed, but how many different series installments the Trek universe has gotten. Sapan and AMC believe that The Walking Dead and its spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead, are building the foundation for a franchise that could go on for years, and maybe decades.

There has been incredible buzz around Fear the Walking Dead’s second season, despite having some mixed reviews from fans after the season one, and The Walking Dead’s seventh season premiere is one of the most anticipated in quite some time. So even though the television landscape is ever-evolving, and some of us can’t help but wonder how long people will care about zombie stories, it looks like The Walking Dead franchise is telling poignant, thrilling enough stories to transcend being just another story in the “zombie genre,” and will be doing so for a very long time.

Do you think The Walking Dead franchise has the potential to be a franchise like Star Trek, or do you think it will have a shorter life than that? Tell me what you think in the comments!

Did The Walking Dead just rule out one character as Negan’s possible victim?

Feature Image: AMC