Ever since news broke that Frank Darabont fired the entire writing staff of his hit AMC series The Walking Dead, speculation — not to mention the running gag about Darabont's original script — has been rampant. In an interview with TV Guide, Robert Kirkman, creator of the comic on which the show is based, issued the kind of 'clarification' that everyone loves: the kind that clarifies nothing, and in fact makes the entire issue even muddier than before.

First of all, Kirkman 'explained', head writer Charles Eglee wasn't fired; he quit. "Chic Eglee is a high-level television writer," Kirkman insisted, who was "brought on to The Walking Dead with the idea that Frank was going to work in the first season and then go off and do movies. Chic didn't want to be second-in-command on a show when he's used to being a top dog, and so he decided to go off and do something else." Kirkman insisted that this is "not a big deal", although he was less clear on how quitting because your ego won't allow you to work with a show's main creative force is better than being fired.


Next, Kirkman lamented that "it's kind of unfortunate that our writing staff has been fired, because that's not the case." What is the case, then? He doesn't say. But he does say that he doesn't know if next season's writing set-up is "going to be a freelance situation or if we're going to have writers in a writer's room", which was the case before Darabont did or did not fire everyone. "That's something that's being worked on now," he non-informed the interviewer, leaving us to bring you this news of whatever it is he was talking about. You're welcome.