Frank Darabont, the showrunner, writer, and often the face of AMC‘s The Walking Dead along with writer/creator Robert Kirkman, is reportedly out as showrunner. There was no discernable indication that this was in the air during the TWD panel at Comic-Con less than one week ago.

The report comes from Deadline who goes on to say:

There is speculation that Darabont might be off the show completely, but I hear talks are still ongoing about him possibly staying on in some capacity. Darabont, who spent five years trying to get a TV version of the zombie saga off the ground and wrote and directed the AMC pilot, hails from the feature world, and I hear that he never quite adjusted to the daily grind of producing a TV series.

This isn’t the first time that controversy has erupted behind the scenes of this multi-Emmy-award-nominated show. As we told you last December, the word was that Darabont had purged the entire writing staff, only to be told the following week that it wasn’t the case.

Hopefully we’ll be getting more information about the situation as it develops. We are also fervently hoping that, having announced the U.S. premiere date for the second season of the series while they were at Comic-Con last Friday, the date will remain the same. We’ll keep you posted!

The Walking Dead is (currently) scheduled to drag and scrape a dangling useless leg onto our tv screens for a second season beginning on October 16 at 9/8c on AMC.