The Walking Dead becomes a 1950s Western in a new fan video that relocates the franchise and turns Charlton Heston into Rick Grimes.

The Walking Dead has been many things, but could it work as a 1950s Western? According to a disturbingly off-kilter AI-generated trailer from Schrödinger’s Film Club, the answer is yes. While the zombie franchise has been given a new lease of life through its recent spin-off shows like Dead City and The Ones Who Live, the unique concept shared by the creator has asked what if the entire Walking Dead story and characters such as Rick, Michonne, and Negan, were shifted to a different era, namely the dusty, lawless towns of the Old West.

The resulting trailer, which is made up of many unnerving images – thanks to the never-quite-on-point AI generation process – retools the Walking Dead concept into a narrative that attributes the origin of the zombie virus to a Communist plot. Casting iconic actor Charlton Heston as Rick Grimes, the looming threat of the undead is accompanied by the human threat posed by a dark and violent outlaw in the form of Negan – portrayed in this instance by Orson Welles.

The transformation of The Walking Dead into a Western setting, allowing for the flaws of its AI creation, does pose a very relevant question of “What If…. The Walking Dead was a Western.” With the franchise not ready to shamble off into its grave anytime soon, could this kind of concept actually work as a real production? It would certainly be an intriguing take on the franchise, and could look to emulate the many TV shows that have involved one-off episodes set in a completely different era, or movies such as Back to the Future Part III, which swapped the then-modern day Hill Valley for its 1886 counterpart. Check out the video below, and decide for yourself.

Would a Western Reboot of the Walking Dead Work?

The Walking Dead appeared to have run its course by the time Season 11 rolled out, but the subsequent release of three character-driven spin-offs has suggested otherwise. Dead City relocated Maggie and Negan to New York, Daryl Dixon headed to France, and then the long awaited return of Rick Grimes in The Ones Who Live delivered a story that fans had been waiting years to see play out. Now the former two shows are preparing their second seasons, and franchise boss Scott M. Gimple has promised that there will be more Walking Dead stories to come.

When it comes to looking at how to reinvigorate the show beyond its current setting, a complete adjacent retelling of the story in a new time period could be something to counter the fatigue that many fans felt by the time the flagship series wrapped. With the franchise having already explored anthology formats with Tales of the Walking Dead, a similar scenario to American Horror Story’s use of the same characters in different settings may well be where the saga needs to go next if it wants to survive.

For now though, all eyes are on the upcoming second season of Daryl Dixon, subtitled The Book of Carol, which will premiere on AMC this summer and brings Melissa McBride’s Carol back into the story following her absence from the main part of Season 1. Following that, Dead City is currently filming its second season, with an expected release date of later this year, or early in 2025. Where the Walking Dead will go after that is yet to be revealed, but they could do worse than consider a complete relocation to a past era for a start.