Walking Dead Shuts Down Production After Stuntman Seriously Injured
One of TV’s biggest shows has halted production following a real-life tragedy.
Season 8 of AMC‘s The Walking Dead has temporarily stopped filming after stuntman John Bernecker was seriously injured on the show’s Atlanta set on Wednesday, according to our sister site Variety. Bernecker fell more than 20 feet onto a concrete floor, suffering head injuries that led to him being rushed to a local hospital, where he is reportedly in intensive care. (Update: Bernecker has since died from his injuries.)
“We are saddened to report that John Bernecker, a talented stuntman for The Walking Dead and numerous other television shows and films, suffered serious injuries from a tragic accident on set,” the network said in a statement. “He was immediately transported to an Atlanta hospital and we have temporarily shut down production. We are keeping John and his family in our thoughts and prayers.”
Bernecker is a veteran Hollywood stuntman, having worked on movies like Logan, The Fate of the Furious and the upcoming Black Panther, along with TV shows like The Vampire Diaries, Scream Queens and Into the Badlands.
Walking Dead co-star Lauren Cohan (Maggie) offered her best wishes on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LaurenCohan/status/885620761016229888
No word on when TWD might resume production, but the cast and producers are still slated to hit San Diego Comic-Con for a panel next Friday. Season 8 of the zombie thriller is set to premiere this fall.
My prayers are with John and family and the entire Walking dead cast. Prayer is what works..
So it’s not the trained medical professionals?
maybe it’s a bit of both
Prayers for the family and cast.
Fock me. Hope for a great recovery.
Stuntman made the Movieworld.
Praying for John and his family and the whole walking dead crew.May the angels surround you and comfort you at this very sad time.
So is The Walking Dead curse? Couple days ago the voiceover actor passed away in a sky diving accident and now a stuntman injured. Wow.
He died just now
No he has not. Please make sure you have accurate information before you post things like that. This time is hard enough for his family without that kind of rumor going around.
Someone representing the producers of the show posted about 5 hours ago on the stuntman’s fiance’s post with “condolences” and “our sympathies.” Others followed suit. (It’s a public post.) I don’t know if they were misinformed or if they know something that hasn’t been made public yet but it is out there. But that was early this morning, so I don’t know where Shannon got her info from at 7 PM last night.
Sorry, left out that the fiance’s post was on Facebook.
It’s confirmed. Damn.
Anyone else find it funny that TamRN1 criticized Shannon for saying the man was dead without accurate information… by saying the man is still alive without any accurate information?
I pray for everyone in the walking dead that takes part of the show in any part big or small I pray for jonhs healthy speady recovery asap.I also pray that if I get chosen as a walker for the show that god protects me as well n if I can be of any assistance being that I’m a medical assistant if something bad was to take place while im there.god forbid.
As sad as it is for the stuntman. I don’t see why you would stop production. Continue on with the job.
Aside from the obvious(except to you, evidently) reasons, they could be trying to figure out the exact cause of his accident and determine any potential liability or responsibility. If he was performing a stunt that was part of a scene scheduled to air, they would have to assess whether that stunt should be replicated/when/how, if any changes need to be made, and whether script rewrites are called for.
To continue, another site reports that he was injured while rehearsing a fight scene that resulted in him falling about 30 feet. If true, they have to determine what exactly happened that led to the accident and look closely at safety measures. Seeing that tomorrow is Friday, it makes sense to shut down production until at least Monday. IMO, it would be irresponsible and stupid to “continue on with the job” immediately.
What is wrong with you Bill? Incapable of human emotion? Just a terrible person?
That’s the problem. People are overly emotional. There are many scenes to film. If they need to pause the one they are doing now to rethink some of it that is great. They can move on to filming some of the other scenes.
Are you serious? This was a workplace accident. When something like this occurs the workplace is shut down until further investigation. And that’s not even touching on your lack of human decency.
This is a workplace accident. There are a number of crew members as well as cast who may have witnessed this horrific accident and you expect them not to be affected and just go back to work? Production crews are like a family, especially if they have worked together for a long time. Anyone with any sensitivity knows that people need time to deal with what happened and for those close to the victim granted as much time as they need to deal with the tragedy. Your response is clearly insensitive.
Seriously you are clearly lacking any empathy for the poor man and his friends and family. The set will also legally have to be completely shut down under health and safety laws.
We are praying that John get better. Our prayers to his family.
And To the Cast of The Walking Dead
Our prayers are for you to.
Prayers to All of The Cast of The Walking Dead, Also Prayers to JOHN & His family.
We all need to prey that he gets
Better.
May God Bless You All.
ANGEL & Brian
Praying for John and his family lots of love for him and the twd family
😳wow I think I want to die doing something I love something that makes people happy and feel good like him Prays for his family