AMC Ripped Me Off Over ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Profits, Zombie Series Co-Creator Dave Erickson Claims & He’s Looking For Payback

A former showrunner on one of AMC‘s biggest zombie apocalypse shows is accusing the cable channel of ripping him off for potentially millions in profits.

If you feel you’ve heard this before, you have.

However, this time it’s not Frank Darabont or Glenn Mazzara making the pricey claims, nor is it Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert or Charles Eglee. This time its Dave Erickson, and the Fear the Walking Dead co-creator and Seasons 1-3 showrunner wants to see the money.

Quite a bit of it, as he says he should.

As a filing today in LA Superior Court by Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP’s Aaron Liskin and Nick Soltman details of the accounting behind the hugely successful and long running FearTWD:

The Series premiered in 2015. It wrapped in 2023. In between, it made hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars for AMC. Yet as of the date of this filing, AMC Studios has not paid Erickson a single dollar in profits. And barring judicial intervention, it never will. Erickson’s most recent profit participation statement shows a remarkable, almost unfathomable deficit of $185,254,991. Even more astounding than this paper deficit, despite AMC’s assurances of equal treatment, Erickson’s most recent profit participation statement indicates that at least $49 million in profit participation payments have already been paid to the other profit participants on the Series.

Noting that a previous filing by Robert Kirkman may actually put that figure at $67 million, the filing adds “Erickson brings this action to rectify AMC’s egregious misconduct and to obtain the tens of millions of dollars in profits he is rightfully owed.”

Tens of millions. No matter who you are or how successful in Hollywood you have been like current Mayor of Kingstown EP Erickson, tens of millions is real money.

Now, Hollywood accounting has long been a shell game by any measure, but the number of TWD franchise principals who have sued AMC over the years does make you wonder if something is rotten in the House of Dolan. I mean, as a slew of new TWD spinoffs loomed, AMC didn’t suddenly pay OG TWD showrunner Darabont a $200 million and more settlement in 2021 after nearly a decade of litigation out of the goodness of their heart.

With that in mind, one of AMC’s top outside attorneys left no doubt at how the company was going to treat Erickson’s lawsuit.

“This lawsuit, like Kirkman’s years ago, has no merit,” Orin Snyder told Deadline today after Erickson’s action was filed at the Santa Monica courthouse.”

We are confident it will fail, just like the last one,” the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner continued in terms we’ve all heard before around these WTD suits. “The contracts here were negotiated by the most experienced and sophisticated legal talent in Hollywood, and AMC has fully paid what is owed. This is simply another crass money grab.”

Zero surprise, Erickson’s team, as their filing made pretty obvious, see it very differently.

“Dave Erickson created a massive hit for AMC in Fear the Walking Dead, expanding The Walking Dead Universe and cementing AMC as the zombie network,” attorneys Aaron Liskin and Nick Soltman said Wednesday. “Despite Fear the Walking Dead’s extraordinary success, Mr. Erickson has not received a single dollar in profits from AMC and, absent this action, he never will. We look forward to holding AMC accountable for the promises it made years ago.”

Before getting on board with the Taylor Sheridan and Jeremy Renner Kingstown series, Erickson’s previous credits besides FearTWD, a stint on Tulsa King and a very very short spell on upcoming spinoff NOLA King, includes being creator/EP of Canterbury’s Law starring Julianna Margulies, EP on the Netflix series Marco Polo and co-EP on FX’s beloved Sons of Anarchy.

Having inked a multi-year overall deal with indie MRC TV in 2024, Erickson is repped by Manage-ment and Gregg Gellman at Morris Yorn.