Robert Kirkman Details ‘The Walking Dead’ Companion Series!
Briefly: Fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead have been wondering for some time just how the upcoming spinoff series will relate to the already established universe, and this weekend at SXSW, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman spilled finally let loose some details.
Via EW:
“It’s not going to relate to the comics at all,” Kirkman said. “From the beginning of the show one thing we’ve heard is, ‘What’s going on over here or there.’ So the intent of the new show is to expand that world and show another corner of the United States and what’s happening there. The timeline is taking place a little bit earlier than the original show. Rick Grimes woke up from a coma and was like, ‘Oh, man, zombies, weird!’ We’re going to possibly see that unfold a little more in the other show. But I wouldn’t call it ‘prequel’ because the entirety of the show is not going take place before [The Walking Dead]. It will eventually form a path running concurrently.”
”One thing that we’re doing with the new show that we’re trying with everything is it’s not derivative,” he said. “It’s standing on its own. You can watch it by itself and get your own experience. But if you are watching both shows there are things like, ‘Oh they discovered this, or they discovered that in a different way.’ There are a lot of things about The Walking Dead world these characters have to learn or figure out to get by. And there may be some things that are discovered in the companion show that haven’t been discovered in the other show yet. So there could be like a thing where, ‘Oh, they encountered a zombie in season 4 in The Walking Dead that could do this and now we know why that was.’ So we’re going to be doing things like that are going to be pretty cool, but for the most part [the two shows] should be able to stand alone.”
Based on Kirkman’s quotes, it sounds like the new series (whatever it’s called) won’t be the beginning-of-the-apocalypse tale that many were looking forward to, but will instead be set just slightly before the original series. I was wondering just how connected it will be to the already established show, and I’m glad to read that this series is mean to be standalone, since ain’t nobody got time for two versions of The Walking Dead.
The yet untitled series will premiere its first six-episode season this Summer, with a second season set to premiere in 2016. Are you looking forward to the spinoff? Or is one series enough? Sound out below!
