Good news, Walking Dead fans. Creator Robert Kirkman recently announced that the highly anticipated The Walking Dead spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead, will premiere in August on AMC. Don’t get too excited, he didn’t give us an exact date yet. It’s still progress though, so we’ll take it, right?
According to The International Business Times, Robert Kirkman revealed the update during a conference call interview with Fangoria in which he discussed details of The Walking Dead spin-off, including how different it is from the current AMC hit. Apparently, Fear the Walking Dead—can we start using the FTWD acronym already?—won’t look anything like The Walking Dead, starting with the fact that it will be shot digitally versus the 16mm film look that we’re used to on The Walking Dead. But that’s not all. Kirkman also mentioned that fans can expect a similar scale and scope of production on the new show, but he was quick to point out that Fear the Walking Dead is completely different from its companion.
But I also don’t think The Walking Dead is lacking in big, crazy set pieces, but I think since Fear The Walking Dead is set in Los Angeles, there’s probably going to be more chaos in the first season and moving into the second season just because we are going to watch civilization crumble. There is a tremendous amount going on and the story is going to move very quickly, so I anticipate Fear the Walking Dead is going to be more hectic than the first season of The Walking Dead.
The Premise
Months ago, TV Line was among the first to report that Fear the Walking Dead will be a kind to a prequel for The Walking Dead, focusing on the “how the apocalypse happened” that we have yet to learn after five seasons of The Walking Dead. We also know that Fear the Walking Dead will take place on the east coast, which brings a whole different layer to the apocalyptic storyline as we’ll get to explore how others deal with the onset of the “strange virus.” This should be good, right?
Franchise Potential
Despite the fact that Fear the Walking Dead hasn’t even premiered yet, some are beginning to wonder if it will be the beginning of a long list of Walking Dead franchise shows. When asked about the potential for more spin-offs, Kirkman had no hesitation in making his intentions—and everyone involved in both shows—clear.
There’s always a possibility for [a limited event spin-off], and I certainly wouldn’t rule it out even though I can say there are no current plans to do that. I think everyone is working hard on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead to make them the best series they can be, and I think everyone’s happy with their work since we’re all doing our jobs. I’m really excited for Fear the Walking Dead to debut in August and for people to see just what we’ve done, but we’re not in a hurry to continue expanding the world of The Walking Dead.
I guess we’ll all find out soon enough! Stay tuned to this developing story.