To hear Walking Dead exec producers Gale Anne Hurd and Robert Kirkman tell it, the original Deadline report about mass firings on the show was overblown. “It’s completely inaccurate,” Hurd told EW; Kirkman indicated to TV Guide that Eglee, an executive producer for The Shield, Dexter, and Dark Angel, “didn’t want to be second-in-command on a show when he’s used to being a top dog” and had decided to “go off and do something else.” On that latter point, Vulture can report that Kirkman was right: Sources tell us Eglee is talking to FX and Sony Pictures Television about becoming a writer and exec producer of Powers, a long-in-the-works dramatization of the comic-book series of the same name about homicide detectives who investigate cases linked to folks with extraordinary abilities. FX execs are said to be very high on Powers (a pilot order seems quite likely), and thanks to his Shield work, Eglee is someone the network and studio know quite well.

Our sources indicate Eglee has been circling Powers for months, implying that his departure from Walking Dead was not some sudden development, or something dictated by Darabont. So are Hurd and Kirkman 100 percent correct when they pooh-pooh the Deadline report? Maybe not: While it’s clear Eglee has been mulling life after Dead for a while, Vulture has also talked to people close to the show who’ve confirmed that several of the writers on the small staff (about a half-dozen scribes) very much wanted to remain full-time for season two. “It’s a huge hit show. Who would walk away from that?” an insider told us.

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