Fear the Walking Dead will be a family drama that evolves into a genre piece reveals a behind-the-scenes look at the companion series to The Walking Dead.
“Every aspect and element of the apocalypse is filtered through our core family,” said executive producer Dave Erickson.
Creator Robert Kirkman described them as a “blended family” during an interview with EW. Madison Bennett (Kim Dickens) and her Polynesian boyfriend, Travis Posadaa (Cliff Curtis), are a decidedly atypical TV couple in that they’re actually happy couple sans the drama. They each have children from previous marriages. Madison’s son, Nick (Frank Dillane), is a drug addict while her daughter, Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), is an overachiever with a black boyfriend named Matt (Maestro Harrell). Travis’ son, Chris (Lorenzo Henrie), resents his father for leaving his hispanic mother, Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez).
“Our family unit just gelled,” said Dickens about her diverse family.
The Walking Dead drop us right in the thick of zombie apocalypse but FTWD is set during the initial zombie outbreak, which is dismissed early on as the flu.
“Having society stripped from these people in real-time is gonna make this show more emotional,” said Kirkman.
There will also be an added element of fear on the part of the viewers, who will be more knowledgeable about zombies than the unsuspecting family. Furthermore, these zombies will be less obvious.
“Here we have an opportunity to create a different palate,” said executive producer Greg Nicotero. “Not only in terms of how the show looks and how the actors interact with each other but how the walkers look.”
LA zombies aren’t just naturally better looking than their country counterparts. Since the outbreak is in its infancy, we’ll see fresh zombies so to speak.
“Greg Nicotero and his team have definitely come up with a very unique take on our early walkers,” Kirkman told EW. “It will harken back a little bit to the early days of the first season of The Walking Dead.”
The debut zombie is revealed in the first three minutes of the pilot episode. It’s indistinguishable from behind. Even upon turning around, cloudy eyes are the only noticeable feature other than human flesh falling from its mouth of course.
Fear the Walking Dead premieres in August on AMC.
