Here’s why “The Walking Dead’ doesn’t use the word ~zombie~

The Walking Dead is one of the most popular shows currently on TV. Now in its seventh season, the series has given us numerous plot twists and heartbreaking moments, seeming to ~almost~ always know how to surprise us. The Walking Dead is so popular that even most people who’ve never seen it could easily sum it up as a show about zombies. Loyal fans, however, know that the series has NEVER actually refers to the “walking dead” as zombies, and now we know why.

The eerie monsters, known as walkers, biters, floaters, geeks, lurkers, roamers, rotters, are not called zombies in an intentional move by The Walking Dead execs, according to Robert Kirkman, co-creator of the comic book and Executive Producer of the series.

Kirkman revealed to Conan O’Brien that the word zombie doesn’t exist in the world of The Walking Dead.

Kirkman told the host that it was important for the audience to understand that while in our culture, zombie stories are very popular (hence the popularity of The Walking Dead), in their world, it doesn’t exist. 

“We wanted to avoid that notion of, ‘Hey, why doesn't that character just shooting that zombie in the head because it saw all those movies I saw.'" He explained. "We wanted to kind of give you a sense that The Walking Dead takes place in a universe where zombie fiction doesn't exist."

Kirkman pointed out that it isn’t wrong to call The Walking Dead a zombie show, and said that even he refers to it as a zombie show. He just reiterated that famous zombie films like Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later don’t exist in the on-screen world of The Walking Dead.

"In the scripts, it's just the dialogue that we keep it out of."

While it may not seem like a big deal, it actually says a lot about the characters’ on-screen decisions. While, having seen the end of Zombieland, we may have some ideas as to how to defeat the walkers, knowing that the characters aren’t familiar with zombie lore is a really cool idea.