Talk about rising to the top quickly. It’s being reported that Glen Mazzara, who was hired after season 1 of The Walking Dead as a head writer and the #2 guy to then showrunner Frank Darabont, will now be taking over as showrunner.

The news comes one day after the surprising announcement that Darabont had stepped down from the position, where he acted as an executive producer, writer, and director on the show he helped create and adapt for television from the Robert Kirkman comic book series.

It’s still unknown why exactly Darabont stepped down, but it’s thought by some that he was not able to adjust from his familiarity with movies to TV formats. Apart from some questionable decisions, there didn’t seem to be any indication that anything was wrong, and everyone seemed happy with how things were going. Also still unknown is if and in what capacity Darabont will remain on the show””last we heard, the powers that be were talking with him about how he might be able to continue contributing.

As for Mazzara, this isn’t his first party. He served as showrunner on the Starz series, Crash, as well as the second season of Hawthorne. He also served as a producer and writer on shows such as The Shield and Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.

Ironically, Mazzara””who did pen one season 1 episode (the second to last episode, titled “Wildfire”) as a freelancer””was hired to the season 2 writing staff of The Walking Dead after Darabont questionably relieved the S1 staff of duty.

[Source: Deadline]