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The AMC Spinoff 'Fear The Walking Dead': News and Speculation


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The question will be, how do you make the look and feel "startlingly different" without diminishing the trials of CDB? It you have a show where a group is having a much easier time in, say, California, it's going to look as if Rick's major problem is just location, as opposed to what has happened to the world and the people left in it. That would, I think, take away from the original.

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AMC's "The Walking Dead" spinoff is officially a go. 

The cable network announced Monday that it has given a two-season order to the still-untitled series, with the first six-episode season set to launch in late summer. Season 2 will debut in 2016.

*  *  *

Added AMC prez Charlie Collier: "We take incredibly seriously the notion of building a satisfying companion series to the number one show on television. From the beginning of 'The Walking Dead' on AMC, we've been asked questions about what was going on in other parts of the zombie apocalypse, and what it looked like as the world really did 'turn.' "

"Through this new series, we're going to find out...."

'The Walking Dead': Companion series is a go on AMC

By Chuck Barney  03/09/2015 12:22:46 PM PDT

http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_27676628/walking-dead-companion-series-is-go-amc

Edited by tv echo
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The question will be, how do you make the look and feel "startlingly different" without diminishing the trials of CDB? It you have a show where a group is having a much easier time in, say, California, it's going to look as if Rick's major problem is just location, as opposed to what has happened to the world and the people left in it. That would, I think, take away from the original.

methinks kirkman is over-selling the degree of difference. Set in California, it has to have a different look, etc. but it can't be a softer, gentler more California-mellow ZA, that would be a joke.
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From the media thread:

From USAToday: Kirkman at SXSW, some about TWD, some about Kirkman's other projects

That new TV series, as yet unnamed and set to begin airing with six episodes this summer, will be set in Los Angeles a bit before the day that Rick Grimes woke up to the zombie apocalypse.

"We're going to be focusing a little bit earlier," Kirkman said. "There will be hints and moments in the second show that if you go back and watch the first season of The Walking Dead will inform some of the discoveries that they had. It's going to be cool. We are trying to form an overall tapestry of a TV universe."

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I'm glad to hear they are doing this where they are giving a peak into the earlier stages of the outbreak. It's just something I heard they might do and I find very exciting and intriguing.  

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I like that this at least starts out as a "prequel" and hopefully still plans to explore the early part of the Zombie Apocalypse. I am pretty fascinated by that, how all these dead people were available for re-animation (since people generally get buried pretty fast where did all the corpses some from) etc.

 

I think it could be really interesting. We'll see this summer. No more WD until Fall, no more Mad Men, ever after May, Breaking Bad gone. It's good timing, IMO.   

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Ha, Fear makes me think of a crappy Mark Wahlburg movie. 

FWD? 

 

I've got to think, in this day and age, production companies and the like actually think a little bit about how their titles may be shortened or abbreviated when they are so long. (It would be responsible branding to do so.) It's weird to me that it is so similar to the original show's title.

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Yeah I thought the name would be more descriptive of the "when" the show takes place ("Beginning" or something) and not include the words "walking dead."

Shockingly, they didn't ask my opinion.

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At the risk of being "that guy"; I'm not sure I can really buy the whole "it'll be 'startlingly different'!" hoopla.  I'm sure I'll still watch (or at least check it out), but c'mon now.

 

Sure, the people, timing and location(s) will be different, but other than that, how can it really be all that different??!  You survive, you fight (the dead and [bad/evil] living), you grieve lost ones, you meet and form relationships with other survivors - wash, rinse, and repeat.

 

I don't know.   Seems to me like it'll be "'startlingly similar'" to the parent series, IMOSO.

Edited by iRarelyWatchTV36
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"Fear the Walking Dead" Confirmed as Title to TWD's Spin-Off TV Show
by Reid Jones ⋅ Posted on March 27th, 2015 at 5:50pm

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/03/27/fear-the-walking-dead-confirmed-as-title-to-twd-s-spin-off-tv-show-2816105?lt_source=external,manual

Robert Kirkman @RobertKirkman  ·  Mar 27

IT'S OFFICIAL! The walking dead companion show on AMC is called FEAR THE WALKING DEAD! Expect more news very soon! #FearTheWalkingDead

https://twitter.com/RobertKirkman

Edited by tv echo
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If you're wanting your new show to strike off on its own path, 3/4 of your title probably shouldn't directly reference your parent show. *headdesk* I'm still looking forward to it, but I gotta say that their choice of a title is making me wonder about their other creative choices.

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The promo they showed last night reminded me of The Stand. Captain Trips!

 

I still don't think they are going to give a cause of the virus, just people's early reactions. 

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Is anyone else bothered by the title? "FEAR The Walking Dead?" I just rolled my eyes when I heard that. It seems really lazy and juvenile, if you ask me. Oh well....I am a wee bit excited about the show, only because I'd like to see more of the original outbreak. But the "teaser" trailer wasn't enough for me to get REALLY excited. Maybe they'll release another one closer to airing. 

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I'm disappointed by the name too. I thought they were going to go with something original. I'll probably call it Fear.

Man, LA is a big city. Can you imagine the hoards of Walkers once everything starts rolling? I'm sort of excited for this show because I can't go looking for spoilers in the comic because there isn't one. I wonder if they'll give Fear the same treatment as the Walking Dead and let the first episode have no commercials.

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So, in the first commercial for this new show, we hear a radio announcer discussing a wierd "virus" that has appeared in 6 states so if you are not feeling well stay home today. Not much of a first look, but probably because I have always been interested in the origins of the world we see on  WD, I have already analyzed it to death (no pun intended), and here is where I am confused.

 

If they are playing this as a virus, a la "I am Legend" then it's a virus that attacks not only the dead but the living. Because the radio announcer is telling people to stay home and I am quite certain that, no matter how dedicated an employee you are, you are not still going into work after you have died.  So the implication is that people being infected are still alive. 

 

This, of course, answers one of my biggest questions regarding how there would be so many reanimated corpses since, as a general rule, dead people are buried fairly quickly. But the big question it would bring is, if it infects the living, why is it that our group has not encountered this? The only people that have turned died first.. If it's an airborne virus of some type that turns living people into zombies, then certainly someone in our group or at the very least one of the groups they came into contact with, would have been infected and turned without dying first?

 

I am probably missing something, but it seems to me if they are going this route, then they will have some splainin' to do on the original Walking Dead, no?  

Edited by chlban
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You bring up some good points. I suppose it's possible that in all the chaos people just didn't know what was going on at first. Or they did, but they didn't want the general public to be freaked out. So they played it off as a flu-type virus, instead of warning citizens that they might be bit by the undead. 

 

I guess the only other possibility would be the virus mutating? Perhaps it started out airborne and was infecting living people, but then later it was only possible to be infected by a bite/scratch? Of course, that sounds more like mutating backwards, so I don't know. This is science fiction, so I guess anything is possible, but it does help when these things are well thought out so it becomes more believable to the viewer. 

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I just think this will be a frustrating series to watch if it's primarily set in the days leading up to the ZA. Any time the viewer knows more than the characters about what's going on, it is usually not a satisfying experience. I like the actors involved, and will give it a shot, but my expectations are minimal.

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After hearing the radio broadcast in the promo and remembeirng Shane's comments about a virus back in season 2, I wonder how this origin play out? I've always been able to accept that a virus spread, infected everyone and then, as they died through accidents or natural causes, those people became the walking dead. That explains walkers in hospitals where doctors would most likely treat them as traditionally ill patients with restraints and security guards because they wouldn't be the decomposed messes they are now. They would just look human and slowly overwhelm the healthcare system until it was too late.

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I'm disappointed by the name too. I thought they were going to go with something original. I'll probably call it Fear.

With apologies to Missing Persons (one of my favorite '80s technobop bands), my pick would be Walking Dead In L. A.

Man, LA is a big city. Can you imagine the hoards of Walkers once everything starts rolling?

 

Eight million roamers with bad hair and a case of the munchies?

I'm pretty sure you just described Bonnaroo.

 

So, in the first commercial for this new show, we hear a radio announcer discussing a wierd "virus" that has appeared in 6 states so if you are not feeling well stay home today. Not much of a first look, but probably because I have always been interested in the origins of the world we see on  WD, I have already analyzed it to death (no pun intended), and here is where I am confused.

 

If they are playing this as a virus, a la "I am Legend" then it's a virus that attacks not only the dead but the living. Because the radio announcer is telling people to stay home and I am quite certain that, no matter how dedicated an employee you are, you are not still going into work after you have died.  So the implication is that people being infected are still alive. 

That, or it's the cover story The (in-show) Powers That Be have concocted to minimize general public exposure to walkers.

Which never works for any length of time.

But they're going to do it anyway. :P

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I'll probably give it a shot, but neither the title nor the setting get me too excited. I am far less interested in the cause of the zombie plague than in how people behave and survive after/during, which is already addressed on the parent show. Then again, if the parent show is going to plant roots in Alexandria, and there will be no opportunity to explore variant ways of rebuilding, then this show might actually prove more interesting in the long run. Especially as it will be unlinked to the comics.

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If they are going to show the fall of civilization with the new show there are some things I'd like to see (and yeah, some are pretty obvious):

 

  • I'd like to see communications stay up for as long as possible so we get a sense of what the rest of the world is going through as things get bad
  • Government safe zones and how they fail
  • Preppers freaking out as all their fears come true
  • How people in remote places are fending and whether they are overrun by people looking for sanctuary
  • If there are any fortified locations that hold out well, like military bases or CIA locations
  • Does the government relocate? Are they still active but trapped in some secure location unable to act?
  • Film makers trying to record everything going on around them
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If they are going to show the fall of civilization with the new show there are some things I'd like to see (and yeah, some are pretty obvious):

 

  • I'd like to see communications stay up for as long as possible so we get a sense of what the rest of the world is going through as things get bad
  • Government safe zones and how they fail
  • Preppers freaking out as all their fears come true
  • How people in remote places are fending and whether they are overrun by people looking for sanctuary
  • If there are any fortified locations that hold out well, like military bases or CIA locations
  • Does the government relocate? Are they still active but trapped in some secure location unable to act?
  • Film makers trying to record everything going on around them

 

All good points. I guess it's just personal preference, but I think seeing the origins and the fall of civilization is a fascinating concept. However, considering the writing on TWD, I cannot say I am terribly optimistic, but more than willing to give it a chance. 

 

No Mad Men ever after May and no TWD until Fall, it's going to be a long summer, so I suspect I will be ready to take a look by "late summer". 

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Do you think they'll use Randy Newman's "I Love L A" for the title song?

 

Yeah, didn't think so.

Personally, I'd prefer Cheech Marin's Born In East L. A. - but hey, maybe that's just me....

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If they are going to show the fall of civilization with the new show there are some things I'd like to see (and yeah, some are pretty obvious):

...

I suspect that we will follow our main characters closely. And that those characters will hopefully show us some of these things. But I wouldn't expect a birds eye view of event. Though that would be a very different approach that they could take. We never get that big picture in TWD. It's character driven and we only learn things, for the most part, that they learn.

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Hey Everyone. In anticipation of the AMC spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead, we have a nice new shiny thread for you to waste even more time in! The series is scheduled to air sometime in the summer of 2015.

 

Below is a link to the board itself, and all future media, speculation and discussion should take place in here. Once the series starts, we will have dedicate episode threads available for discussion.

 

Fear The Walking Dead

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I got to pondering [smell the smoke?];  as TWD 'veterans', Fear the Walking Dead does sound lame and unoriginal.

 

Until you stop and think, FtWD is a sort of 'prequel' to TWD, right?  Meaning its starting about the same time the actual ZA itself starts.  So going by that, what is the immediate and encompassing fear in that scenario?  The reanimating deceased; ie, the walking dead.  So in that sense, FtWD is the perfect name for this spinoff 'prequel' series - at least until its timeline reaches TWD's starting point.

 

JMO & YMMV

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Fear that this Walking Dead won't be any good?

It may just be the fear, in this universe where zombie movies don't exist, of the re-animated dead as you said. Other than maybe surprised, our gang hasn't been "scared" of them in quite some time.

 

I know HalcyonDays made us brand spankin' new forum, but going there would validate the crappy name :(

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Fear that this Walking Dead won't be any good?

It may just be the fear, in this universe where zombie movies don't exist, of the re-animated dead as you said. Other than maybe surprised, our gang hasn't been "scared" of them in quite some time.

 

This show does have potential, if they do it right and the actors and you know what...I was going to write more but then realized that there is a DEDICATED forum to which this discussion should go *cough cough*. I'll reply there. *grin*

 

I know HalcyonDays made us brand spankin' new forum, but going there would validate the crappy name :(

 

Sorry, you have no choice. If your butt isn't over there, along with everyone else's (at least those who are going to watch the show), their will be hell to pay.

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(edited)

Fear that this Walking Dead won't be any good?

It may just be the fear, in this universe where zombie movies don't exist, of the re-animated dead as you said. Other than maybe surprised, our gang hasn't been "scared" of them in quite some time.

 

I know HalcyonDays made us brand spankin' new forum, but going there would validate the crappy name :(

Considering the percentages of recent deaths at the hands of TWD, I would say our gang should re assess that POV. Beth is the only

recent one that wasn't killed by a Walker, she went via suicide by manicure scissors. Idiot. Um, I mean RIP, Beth.

 

Edited to clarify it was Beth I was calling an idiot, never any poster here because this really is an awesome forum and surprisingly fun, considering the subject matter of the show!   

Edited by chlban
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(edited)

Fear that this Walking Dead won't be any good?

It may just be the fear, in this universe where zombie movies don't exist, of the re-animated dead as you said. Other than maybe surprised, our gang hasn't been "scared" of them in quite some time.

 

What I meant was that the people in the FtWD 'universe' will be scared of the re-animated dead - at least for the first season or so.  Unless they meet their own "Dr Jenner" in their survival travels, they won't know about everyone being infected either;  until they see someone die (from anything other than a walker attack) and then re-animate, that will definitely be a big 'scare factor' for them.

Edited by iRarelyWatchTV36
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This show does have potential, if they do it right and the actors and you know what...I was going to write more but then realized that there is a DEDICATED forum to which this discussion should go *cough cough*. I'll reply there. *grin*

 

 

Sorry, you have no choice. If your butt isn't over there, along with everyone else's (at least those who are going to watch the show), their will be hell to pay.

Fear The Halcyon. 

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Fear The Halcyon. 

 

Good answer.....

 

*grin*

 

Welcome to the FTWD boards, Jordan27!! Glad you popped on in and hope you stick around!! And also hope the show is good. TWD is going to be a tough act to follow for them.

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(edited)

So, in the first commercial for this new show, we hear a radio announcer discussing a wierd "virus" that has appeared in 6 states so if you are not feeling well stay home today. Not much of a first look, but probably because I have always been interested in the origins of the world we see on WD, I have already analyzed it to death (no pun intended), and here is where I am confused.

If they are playing this as a virus, a la "I am Legend" then it's a virus that attacks not only the dead but the living. Because the radio announcer is telling people to stay home and I am quite certain that, no matter how dedicated an employee you are, you are not still going into work after you have died. So the implication is that people being infected are still alive.

This, of course, answers one of my biggest questions regarding how there would be so many reanimated corpses since, as a general rule, dead people are buried fairly quickly. But the big question it would bring is, if it infects the living, why is it that our group has not encountered this? The only people that have turned died first.. If it's an airborne virus of some type that turns living people into zombies, then certainly someone in our group or at the very least one of the groups they came into contact with, would have been infected and turned without dying first?

I am probably missing something, but it seems to me if they are going this route, then they will have some splainin' to do on the original Walking Dead, no?

You bring up some good points. I suppose it's possible that in all the chaos people just didn't know what was going on at first. Or they did, but they didn't want the general public to be freaked out. So they played it off as a flu-type virus, instead of warning citizens that they might be bit by the undead.

I guess the only other possibility would be the virus mutating? Perhaps it started out airborne and was infecting living people, but then later it was only possible to be infected by a bite/scratch? Of course, that sounds more like mutating backwards, so I don't know. This is science fiction, so I guess anything is possible, but it does help when these things are well thought out so it becomes more believable to the viewer.

After hearing the radio broadcast in the promo and remembeirng Shane's comments about a virus back in season 2, I wonder how this origin play out? I've always been able to accept that a virus spread, infected everyone and then, as they died through accidents or natural causes, those people became the walking dead. That explains walkers in hospitals where doctors would most likely treat them as traditionally ill patients with restraints and security guards because they wouldn't be the decomposed messes they are now. They would just look human and slowly overwhelm the healthcare system until it was too late.

I think we could have such an announcement based on what we know from the first season of TWD:

1. without having had any experience of re animating corpses....From what I remember, and I've watched season 1 more than twice, people who got bit developed an "illness" that was characterized by flu like symptoms. I'm guessing that the radio announcements in the preview exist in the time frame where several people in 6 states have been hospitalized due to severe and rapidly progressing flu symptoms. - and none have died or turned yet.

2. The above could happen as well as doctors, MEs or EMTS experiencing some deaths and re animations as people dying and reviving and behaving in a psychotic manner upon revival. (They are sick!) In the real world when a person who is in an accident or is sick is revived and behaves violently (ie: gets aggressive, try's to attack/bite people around them)they are restrained.

A. Yeah, weird. The guy has no vitals but he's alive...(Maggie thought that of her mother)

B. Restrained = unable to attack/bite = days or weeks animated dead in hospital bed while doctors ponder the problem. Plenty live sick people look like death and plenty risky hospital patients are restrained every day.

3. The same, except a few corpses have reanimated in coolers in morgues. Technically, a walker could be hanging out in a storage cooler for quite a while - without the scary decomposition we have become accustomed to - before being discovered. Once the drawer is opened it could bite a surprised medical examiner and escape the premises undetected. The ME is in disbelief, or is not believed and of course falls into fever and is deemed incoherent by self and others.

4. One or all of the above and as mentioned, TPTB are judiciously deciding which information the public needs to know.

I am looking forward to Fear the Walking Dead as something to enjoy, pick apart or make fun of, even if it is just a little "near fear" to hold me over till Walktober.

Edited by Seawolff
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(edited)

So, it's not based on the comics but Kirkman is still involved?  Hmmm......

 

So, basically, we still won't find out what the root cause was for the dead re-animating & walking.  

 

Awesome. [/scarcasm]

Edited by iRarelyWatchTV36
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So, it's not based on the comics but Kirkman is still involved?  Hmmm......

His bank account is, at least.

I expect since the new show is flying under the TWD franchise banner, Kirkman (a) wants to maintain some degree of creative QC and (b) ensure the new show doesn't contradict his original stuff.

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