News: Walking Dead Spinoff Coming into Focus

http://undeadwalking.com/2015/01/21/companion-show-called-fear-walking-dead/

So for a while we've known that Kirkman and crew were working on a spinoff series for The Walking Dead, working titled of "Cobalt", but only in the last few months have the details become clearer. First, the announcement came just before Christmas that the spinoff would be located in Los Angeles, rather than the Atlanta area setting of the original series. As a Chicagoan, I'm always disappointed when shows and movies take the typical route and chose NYC or LA as a setting, but I'll give it a shot. I'm glad that they're shaking it up though. As much as I love TWD, it would be pretty silly to just make a carbon copy of the same show simply to get more advertising revenue. Setting it in LA presents new challenges for the characters and a new range of opportunities for the writers.

But the setting is not the only shake up we'll see in the new spinoff series. According to some unverified reports in the past couple of days, the spinoff is supposedly going to start off at the beginning of the outbreak. This will enable Kirkman to show us the month that we missed while Rick was in his coma. This is bold, in my opinion. If you look at many zombie flicks and fiction, they often jump into the future to avoid having to deal with the logistics of how the infection began. It's difficult to show the full extent of the outbreak and fall of society in a way that comes across as believable. The best example I can think of was BBC's Survivors (which wasn't a zombie show, but involved a pandemic). They executed this very well, so hopefully the spinoff will follow their lead.

We also have some news on who our new characters are. We know they're a family, but a family with a few problems that predated the dead walking the earth. So what exactly does that mean? Some sources have reported that the mom is divorced and has two teenage kids, one of whom has a drug problem, and that those three teams up with her divorced male colleague.  I'm a little worried; I'll be honest, as all of that sound a little like the plot of a SyFy original movie. Also, The Walking Dead got very lucky with their younger actors--Chandler Riggs is a solid young actor--but let's face it: sometimes having a bunch of teenagers running around on a show makes it more suited for the WB than for AMC. Of course, I'm a total hypocrite because I write YA zombie fiction that I don't find to be cheesy. I guess my real concern is in them finding the right actors who can effectively pull this off. They have some very big, very talented shoes to fill.

http://www.purebreak.com/media/photo-the-walking-dead-cliff-curtis-sera-le-362564.html

One of the people they've casted is Alycia Debnam Carey. She was one of the better things about the disappointment that was Into the Storm, so maybe that's not such a bad sign. And Frank Dillane, who I'm assuming is playing her older brother, was Tom Riddle in Harry Potter, so that's not a bad sign either. The other announced cast thus far are Kim Dickens (Gone Girl, Treme) and Cliff Curtis (Training Day, Three Kings). Cliff Curtis's character also has a teenage son (I smell love connection with the teenage girl...), but he has yet to be announced in terms of casting.

Whether or not they are able to pull this off, you have to applaud these actors for getting a great gig, and you have to applaud AMC for giving it a shot. They should be in filming now or soon, with a 2015 air date for the pilot. My guess is that they'll want to run it over the summer to fill the empty space when TWD is gone, but that's purely my speculation. Fingers crossed, this will be quality stuff.