HBO turned down the chance to make The Walking Dead, but the network’s reason for passing on the show suggests it wouldn’t have been as violent as Game of Thrones. At the beginning of the “Peak TV” era — also known as the Golden Age of Television — HBO was considered to be the home of prestige TV. HBO pioneered the TV antihero with The Sopranos and The Wire and blazed the trail for meta single-camera sitcoms with Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Larry Sanders Show. HBO ditched the old episodic traditions and told serialized stories that felt like really long movies.

However, as the Golden Age went on, more and more networks launched their own HBO-style shows with cinematic visuals, complex characters, and risqué subject matter. AMC was one of the first networks to throw its hat in this ring. Shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad gave HBO’s best dramas a run for their money. AMC scored a blockbuster hit with the record-breaking ratings of The Walking Dead, but The Walking Dead could’ve been an HBO show if the network had changed its stance on gore a couple of years earlier.

HBO Was Interested In The Walking Dead (If The Violence Was Toned Down)

HBO & NBC Both Offered To Buy The Show If It Was Made Less Gory

When producer Gale Anne Hurd was first shopping The Walking Dead around TV networks, there was plenty of interest in the project, but there were some disagreements over the show’s graphic content. NBC and HBO both made offers to become the home of The Walking Dead, but they didn’t want to air the show as it was pitched to them; they wanted to make some stylistic changes. These networks only made their offers on the condition that the series tone down the violence and gore from Robert Kirkman’s comic books.

Before working on The Walking Dead, Gale Anne Hurd produced The Terminator, Aliens, and Armageddon.

Hurd knew this would be unfaithful to the source material and compromise Kirkman’s creative vision, so she refused to tone down the violence. As a result, HBO passed on The Walking Dead, as did NBC, and Hurd held out for a network that would be comfortable with all the blood and guts they wanted to throw at the screen. This ultimately paid off, because The Walking Dead found the perfect home at AMC. Unlike NBC and HBO, AMC had no qualms about The Walking Dead’s gore and allowed the producers to push it as far as they wanted.

HBO’s Reason To Turn Down The Walking Dead Is Ironic Now After Game Of Thrones

Game Of Thrones’ Violence Gives The Walking Dead A Run For Its Money

It seems ironic that HBO turned down The Walking Dead for being too violent, because shortly thereafter, the network would become most famous for being the home of Game of Thrones, one of the most violent shows in the history of television. The violence and gore in Game of Thrones gives The Walking Dead a run for its money. The Walking Dead might have bloodthirsty zombies, impromptu amputations, and people getting ripped open and eviscerated, but Game of Thrones is arguably even bloodier. Neither series is for the faint-hearted, but Game of Thrones might be the goriest of the two.

Before Game of Thrones, HBO’s violence was often restrained, bloodless, and unstylized, like Tony Soprano garrotting a gangland rival or Omar Little getting gunned down in a convenience store.

Game of Thrones had a man’s eyes gouged out. The notorious Red Wedding massacre saw a pregnant woman get stabbed in the womb. Ramsay Bolton got mauled to death by his own hounds. Before Game of Thrones, HBO’s violence was often restrained, bloodless, and unstylized, like Tony Soprano garrotting a gangland rival or Omar Little getting gunned down in a convenience store. The violence wasn’t sensationalized like the zombie attacks in The Walking Dead, so it makes sense that a pre-Thrones HBO turned down Kirkman’s zombie-infested drama. Of course, that all changed when HBO took a trip to Westeros.

The Walking Dead Would Have Been A Very Different Show On HBO (For Better Or Worse)

The Last Of Us Is An Indication Of What HBO’s The Walking Dead Would Look Like

If it had aired on HBO, The Walking Dead would’ve been a very different show. There would’ve been both pros and cons to The Walking Dead being an HBO show. For starters, HBO’s non-existent restrictions on cursing would’ve meant that the series wouldn’t have had to censor Rick’s most badass line in The Walking Dead’s season 4 finale. The Walking Dead started dropping F-bombs on AMC in its later seasons, but it would’ve been able to swear from the get-go on HBO. But The Walking Dead probably wouldn’t have been as action-packed if it was an HBO original.

HBO eventually did make its own zombie show, The Last of Us, which is a good indication of what HBO’s The Walking Dead would’ve looked like. Like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us takes place in a dystopian, zombie-infested post-apocalyptic wasteland where the remnants of humanity have descended into territorial savagery and separated into factions. While it does have a couple of thrilling set-pieces, The Last of Us has a lot less zombie action than The Walking Dead. It puts much more emphasis on the post-apocalyptic psyche than the spectacle of the undead.