Good news, “The Walking Dead” wants a million seasons, but here’s the catch

People like zombies. In fact, AMC’s The Walking Dead is currently the network’s number one show. It’s so successful that they made a spinoff – Fear the Walking Dead (and even a discussion show, Talking Dead!). It appears as if zombies, especially AMC’s zombies, show no signs of stopping.

The show’s most recent season featured a lot of memorable moments, including one of the most intense cliffhangers ever. Now, as the show’s seventh season is about to premiere, many fans wonder – how much longer will we see Rick, Michonne, and company fight off the relentless dead (and the somehow more frightening living)?

The answer is most likely, a good, long while.

Apparently, at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, AMC Networks President and CEO Josh Sapan made it clear that Walking Dead isn’t going anywhere any time soon. He shared that he feels Walking Dead will likely last for quite a while longer and that the franchise, in his eyes, is similar to Star Trek.

"[Star Trek] came and went three times," Sapan explained to The Wrap. "We do think that we have a franchise [in The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead] that is one of the rare franchises that you occasionally come across in what we do for a living."

While individual Star Trek series have varied in length, there have been six series total, with another coming in 2017 – meaning that the world and mythos of Star Trek is vast. Sapan believes that it could be similar for TWD – that eventually, there could be many different installments and various series that are all part of the same world, making Fear the Walking Dead simply the beginning of the franchise branching out.

It’s especially telling that Sapan referenced Star Trek in particular- 2016 is the 50th anniversary since the original series premiered, and with a film out this year and a new series in the works, it’s shown no signs of stopping.

It’s totally possible that AMC’s vision for the show reaches that far – and if the TWD world continues to be filled with compelling narratives and adrenaline-raising thrills, it just might succeed. Rejoice, zombie-lovers! It looks like we’ll be seeing plenty more walkers where AMC is concerned.