Though we won't see any new episodes of The Walking Dead until February, news related to the show's universe hasn't stopped coming in. Earlier this week we reported that the first two actors had been cast for AMC's The Walking Dead companion series, aka Cobalt, and now another actor has signed on to the series, one who is likely playing the male lead.
Deadline reports that Cliff Curtis has signed on to play what is most likely the male lead of The Walking Dead companion series. Curtis will portray the role of a divorced teacher trying hard to help those close to him. These details gel with the previously released information for the character of Sean Cabrera, who is described as "a Latino male in his early 40s... a good man trying to do right by everyone in his life." It's likely, however, that the name "Sean Cabrera" is a cover for the character's real name that won't be revealed until closer to the series' premiere.
This past Tuesday, Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey joined The Walking Dead companion series to play the brother/sister characters of Nick Tompkins and Ashley Tompkins, respectively. It's believed that the companion series, which is most definitely set in the same living dead-overrun universe of The Walking Dead, will follow Curtis' divorced teacher character and a female guidance counsellor as they struggle to survive in an environment very different from what we've seen on the current program.
Nick and Ashley are the offspring of the guidance counsellor, who, according to the previously reported character details, is named Nancy Tompkins, a single mother in her thirties. The role of Nancy has yet to be cast, in addition to Sean's angry, smart teenage son, Cody, and Andrea Chapman, a fortysomething former "flower child" recovering from a terrible marriage. Again, those names are likely to change, but the descriptions are probably accurate and give us a good idea of what types of people we can expect to see in the companion series.
Fans of The Walking Dead should be pleased to know that Robert Kirkman co-created and co-wrote the companion series’ pilot with Dave Erickson (Sons of Anarchy, Low Winter Sun), who will also serve as showrunner and executive producer. The Walking Dead executive producers Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert will handle the same duties on the new series.
The pilot is currently undergoing the early stages of production. It's not yet known when the first episode will air or where shooting will commence, but we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on further details about the companion series as they surface.
Cliff Curtis has a long list of big and small screen credits. He recently co-starred in Fox's cancelled series, Gang Related, and played supporting roles in many movies over the past two-plus decades, including Live Free or Die Hard, 10,000 B.C., Push, and The Fountain. Sci-fi fans may also remember him as Searle, one of the astronauts on a suicide mission in Danny Boyle's 2007 film, Sunshine.
Cliff Curtis:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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