What’s next for Walking Dead? More of Telltale’s Clementine, says Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) couldn’t say much about the beloved Skybound/Telltale Games character many feared dead at the end of 2019s The Walking Dead game, but did tease at a possible future for her at the Skybound Entertainment virtual New York City Comic Con panel on Sunday. “Possibly there is something in the works with Clementine in some form. We’ll just have to see.”

Kirkman was joined by Senior Vice President Shawn Kirkham to celebrate Skybound’s 10-year anniversary with some teasers about what’s new and next for the entertainment company. The two opened the panel by joking about the awkwardness of hosting a convention online. Kirkman said “You know what this year sucks and we’re doing our best to get through it, so we’re gonna do these virtual things to help get us along and we’re all gonna like it.”

The two dove into Skybound’s recent string of successes and new releases including The Walking Dead Deluxe and Fire Power.

Image: Charlie Adlard/Skybound Entertainment

Launched on October 7, 2020, The Walking Dead Deluxe is a celebration of the comic that kicked off the global zombie empire. The original series began on October 3, 2003 and recently completed its epic run with The Walking Dead #193. TWD Deluxe is being released as a single issue experience in full color for the first time. It will not be collected in trade paperback, which means fans will have to collect each issue as it comes out. Beginning in November, The Walking Dead Deluxe will release two issues each month. Kirkman says the comic will also feature substantial backmatter goodies that detail the process behind each issue’s creation.

The Walking Dead’s original series artist Charlie Adlard is providing covers for the first six issues along with artist Arthur Adams (Batman). Kirkman says the Adams covers are connecting and feature new characters. He joked about needing a bigger wall for displaying the planned fifty-cover series. Dave McCaig is teaming up with Kirkman to do recolors along with additional variant covers from Julian Totino Tedesco (Hawkeye).

Although the long running The Walking Dead TV series will be ending after season 11 wraps in 2022, Kirkman sought to soothe fans’ anxiety. Midway through the panel he said the show and its beloved characters aren’t going “anywhere anytime soon.” He talked about his excitement for seeing what else is in store for characters Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), a nod towards Skybound’s recently announced fourth Walking Dead TV series starring Reedus and McBride. The unnamed spin-off is scheduled to appear on AMC sometime in 2023.

On Thursday, the first teaser trailer for the Amazon Prime animated series Invincible was released. The hour-long adult drama is based on the comic by Kirkman about 17-year-old-superhero Mark Grayson and the rest of the superhero squad known as the Guardians of the Globe. The animated series will explore what happens when Mark Grayson finds out his dad, and most powerful superhero on the planet Omni-Man, may not be as heroic as he seems. Speaking about the show, Shawn Kirkham says “The cast on the show is one of the best voice casts I’ve ever seen on any show to date.”

The Invincible cast includes many Walking Dead alumni as well as Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson, J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man, and Sandra Oh as Debbie Grayson. Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Michael Dorn will play fan favorite character Battle Beast. The series will premiere on Prime Video in 2021.

The panel turned back to comics with talk of Kirkman’s latest series Fire Power with artist Chris Samnee (Daredevil). The Skybound/Image series has been heating up comic shops since the prelude OGN was released in July. Fire Power follows Owen Johnson, a Chinese-American man who goes to China to find out more about his birth parents. Johnson ends up discovering the ancient power of fireball throwing at a Shaolin temple. The martial arts driven fantasy is only on issue #4, but Kirkman says he and Samnee are busy collaborating on issue #14. While Kirkman was tight-lipped on the exact direction of the story, he did say the series is leading to some monumental events.

Kirkham and Kirkman covered several other new media ventures Skybound is pursuing in the upcoming year. They include translating the supernatural thriller comic Gasolina by Sean Mackiewicz and Niko Walker into a narrative podcast for Audible, with full recordings in Spanish and English. Several other narrative podcasts were also announced as part of Skybound’s partnership with Audible in August. Skybound is also wrapping up their first comic book Kickstarter, Ava’s Demon. The popular science fiction fantasy webcomic by Michelle Czajkowski Fus will be collected and published as a hardcover volume for the first time.

The panel wrapped with Shawn Kirkham directing fans to tune in for Skybound XPO: Halloween. The live streamed event begins on October 30, 2020.