'Walking Dead': Glen Mazzara replaces Frank Darabont as showrunner

Just a day after Frank Darabont stepped down from his perch as showrunner at "The Walking Dead," writer Glen Mazzara will reportedly take over the top behind-the-scenes spot at AMC's zombie-pocalypse hit.

Mazzara ("Hawthorne," "The Shield") joined the show as a writer/producer in its second season, currently filming in Georgia.

"We hired Glen Mazzara as our Number 2 in the room," Darabont said in a June Deadline.com interview. "We consider him our head writer and he's just a fantastic asset."

According to Deadline, production of the show has not been interrupted and, as per Darabont -- who participated in the show's Comic-Con panel and pressroom -- the writers already had eight of 13 shows written with the rest of the season in outline.

The premiere date, announced at Comic-Con, remains Oct. 16.