Gear up, The Walking Dead fans. While you may be huddled in a ball right now wondering what to watch every Sunday night following this week’s season finale, get ready for the spin-off, which has now been given an official name – Fear the Walking Dead.
The series, which Variety reports is set to debut some time this summer (yes!) on AMC, will follow what’s going on in the world of walkers/biters/roamers in another part of the U.S.: Los Angeles. It has been confirmed that it will take place around the same time as we first began following Rick Grimes and his ever-expanding (and reducing) crew of survivors trying to navigate their way through the zombie apocalypse.
However, set a bit earlier in the continuum, we’ll get to see a bit more of how it all began in the new show – in the first season of TWD, Grimes wakes up from a coma after much of the early mayhem, and and our only glimpse of the start was through flashbacks from characters like Shane.
Robert Kirkman, who serves as executive producer (and also author of the comics on which the series is based) sent out a teaser on Twitter to whet fans’ appetites:
IT’S OFFICIAL! The walking dead companion show on AMC is called FEAR THE WALKING DEAD! Expect more news very soon! #FearTheWalkingDead
— Robert Kirkman (@RobertKirkman) March 27, 2015
Related: The Walking Dead spin-off series will begin as a prequel
Leading the cast of fearful survivors in this series will be Kim Dickens, whom you might recognize from her most recent role in the third season of House of Cards; along with Cliff Curtis (Traffic), Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), and Alycia Debnam Carey (Into the Storm). The same stellar team from TWD will be involved behind-the-scenes in this project, including, as noted, Kirkman, along with Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero, and David Alpert. It will be executive produced by Dave Erickson, who will also serve as showrunner.
With Erickson and Kirkman having co-created and co-written the pilot, we can expect the same edge-of-your-seat intro as we did with The Walking Dead.
Not surprisingly, Fear The Walking Dead doesn’t need to wait for renewal – it has already been inked for two seasons, though it seems it was really worked out to a single season divided into two. Season one, consisting of just six episodes, will debut this summer, followed by the remainder second half as season 2 in 2016.
It will be interesting to see how the writers make this series different from the original. Really, more of the same from a different perspective is all that’s needed to signal a hit. Considering the location, we can expect to see a few more Hollywood-looking zombies, walkers in bikinis, and high-powered executives in suits as opposed to the country folk we’ve come across in Georgia
While you bite your nails waiting to find out which main character gets the virus two days from now on the finale of The Walking Dead (come on, you know it’ll happen!), converse with other fans using the hashtag #fearthewalkingdead about this upcoming series. And rest up. It’ll only be a few months before you get your zombie fix once again.
