AMC is doubling down on zombies with this summer's "Fear The Walking Dead," a companion series to the smash hit show "The Walking Dead." Originality of titles aside, fans are excited for the spinoff to bring a new perspective to the zombie apocalypse. The show will begin at the onset of the outbreak and will take place primarily in Los Angeles.
Despite the change in time and locales, some have wondered if this new show will just be a retread of recycled material. However, "Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman assures fans that this new show will be able to stand on its own with an interesting and unique concept.
"If you think about the way a zombie outbreak would happen, it would happen very organically," Kirkman told Entertainment Weekly. "It would be happening for a while behind the scenes. In pockets of civilization, there would be news stories that didn't really make sense and didn't seem connected. And that's kind of where we pick things up. There are a lot of things on the news, there's a lot of chatter and paranoia and concern. And yet the vast majority of the population is ignoring these things and talking about their daily lives, and that's kind of where we pick things up. And things ramp up very quickly from there."
Although the need for a second zombie apocalypse show may not have been prevalent, it will be interesting to see the initial collapse of society. If you'll remember, Rick Grimes spent most of that time period in a coma on "The Walking Dead" so fans have not witnessed how exactly it all went wrong in the real world. "Fear The Walking Dead" will explore that exact process and even draw on some real life events. Unfortunately, it won't answer some of the biggest questions viewers have.
But fans are still curious about how the two shows will intersect. There have been some rumors of a crossover, but that would confuse the timelines. Fortunately, Kirkman explained that this new series will serve as both a prequel and an interquel, with the show eventually running concurrently with "The Walking Dead."
"I will say that I don't consider this show to be a prequel to The Walking Dead, because there will be a point where a certain episode of this show will line up with season 2 of The Walking Dead, and a certain episode of this show will line up with season 3 of The Walking Dead. So we will be progressing through time to the point that we do pass the initial days of the outbreak. But how fast it is that we get there? That's just going to have to remain a mystery."
