Walking Dead spinoff serves as prequel

The Walking Dead franchise is going on a bender.

The forthcoming spinoff series, Fear the Walking Dead, premièred during the city’s Comic-Con fest after a panel that introduced the cast of the new zombie apocalypse drama to 6,500 fans.

“It starts as a family drama, and we filter the apocalypse through that,” executive producer Dave Erickson told the audience.

Fear the Walking Dead is serving as a prequel to the hugely popular Walking Dead series and will be examining how the zombie apocalypse started in Los Angeles. The AMC companion show takes place during the weeks that Walking Dead protagonist Rick Grimes was in a coma outside Atlanta in that show’s first episode.

The initial instalment centred on guidance counsellor Madison (played by Kim Dickens) and her recently divorced partner Travis (Cliff Curtis) seeking help for her heroin-addicted son Nick (Frank Dillane), who recently woke up to discover that his girlfriend had apparently become undead.

“We, the audience, know something they don’t know from watch- ing The Walking Dead,” AMC president Charlie Collier said before the screening. “We know the looming dangers ahead. These characters are going to have to figure it out.”

The moody first instalment focused far less on the flesh-eating action depicted in The Walking Dead and more on emotional tensions between family members, including Madison’s savvy daughter Alicia Clark (Alycia DebnamCarey), as they coped with Nick’s addiction.

Fear the Walking Dead is set to debut Aug. 23 on AMC.