After news was announced that AMC’s ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ will be a companion series to ‘The Walking Dead to shed more light on the zombie apocalypse, the new program is now understood as a parallel yet separate story from the original series.
Since the first season, ‘The Walking Dead’ has been showing audiences the world in which Rick Grimes woke up after a long coma.
Following a wide range of twists and turns, fans have come to question whether unexplored events relating to the outbreak will be further shown in the new series.
Aside from the zombie apocalypse, ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ will be looking into personal and family issues with which the drama is expected to bring on more seasons for the new series.
“What’s intriguing to me is to take these problems, which I think would make for a compelling drama, and put them in this much larger canvas and see how they play out,” showrunner David Erickson explained.
‘Fear the Walking Dead’ will then begin with the story of Travis Curtis as well as his girlfriend, ex-wife and teenage son.
Despite the low chances of having their clans united, both Travis and Madison aim to bring them all together in one roof and address their issues as one family.
While Erickson promises a plentiful bunch of walkers, he also zeroed in on the fact that such companion piece will be following the stories of characters and how these people try to understand the zombie outbreak in their own perspective.
“It takes a bit of time for everyone to wrap their brains around what this truly means,” Erickson added.
Set in Los Angeles, confirmed cast members who have signed on for ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ include Kim Dickens (‘Sons of Anarchy’, ‘Gone Girl’) as Madison; Frank Dillane (‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’) as Nick; Cliff Cutis (‘Missing’) as Travis; and Alycia Debnam-Carey (‘Into the Storm’) as Alicia.
Other series regulars will include Mercedes Mason (‘Quarantine 2: Terminal’) as Ofelia and Elizabeth Rodriguez (“Orange is the New Black”) as Liza.
Executive producer Robert Kirkman, who has been working on both series, has also opened up about what will be shown in ‘Fear the Walking Dead.’
“Everything that happens in ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ is in the same universe as ‘The Walking Dead,’” Kirkman explained. “So any rule that we find out and anything they see in the early days is definitely something that was happening in the past of the other show.’
Despite following a different storyline along with a complete overhaul in characters and locations, the upcoming series should not be expected to be a prequel.
“These two shows are very intertwined in the same world, even if their characters aren’t necessarily going to interact because of geographical distances,” Kirkman added. “…Anything that you learn from Fear the Walking Dead will apply to the mythology of The Walking Dead and vice versa.”
