The Walking Dead is slated to return for its seventh season Oct. 23, a mark many television showrunners never even dream of reaching. But in the eyes of AMC executives, the zombie drama hasn’t nearly come close to running its course.

During Goldman Sachs annual Communacopia Conference Wednesday, AMC Network President and CEO Josh Sapan revealed that he thinks the show has the potential to run for as long as Star Trek has. Of the zombie series, he said, it “has incredible long life left in it,” and could continue to run for “many, many more years.”

“[Star Trek] came and went three times,” he added, according to The Wrap. “We do think that we have a franchise [in The Walking Dead] that is one of the rare franchises that you occasionally come across in what we do for a living.”

Given that Star Trek just celebrated its 50th anniversary, TWD has a lot of catching up to do.

Read more at TheWrap.com.

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com.