Ready to see what's happening outside of the Atlanta area in the living dead landscape of AMC's The Walking Dead? Robert Kirkman and company sure are, as the companion series is on the brink of rolling cameras on its newly assembled core cast. In a recent interview, Kirkman—the co-creator of the upcoming show and co-writer of the pilot—shed more light on the mysterious companion series.
Speaking with EW, Robert Kirkman touched on the identity of The Walking Dead companion series, explaining that family will be an important factor of the show, though it won't be the type of family we've seen come together around Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead:
“I will say that this is going to be a show about family. But it’s going to be a show about a different type of family that we haven’t explored in The Walking Dead thus far."
Fans of the comic book series on which The Walking Dead is based have wondered whether or not we'll see characters make the leap from the printed page to the small screen for the companion series, and Kirkman addressed those thoughts:
"It’s Los Angeles. It’s a corner of the world that we have never explored in the comic book series... So it fits within that world, but it is all new characters, all new events and all kinds of crazy stuff."
Kirkman also stated that viewers can expect to be immersed in an atmosphere that contrasts what we've experienced on The Walking Dead:
"I think the look and feel of The Walking Dead spinoff is going to be startlingly different... It has to be a show that can stand on its own. I think that’s what we’ve accomplished, and we start filming in a couple of days. I’m really excited.”
Kirkman and fellow executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert are intent on differentiating the DNA of the companion series from the current show so that it can stand on its own merits without leaning too much on the name recognition of its predecessor. To help make this goal a reality, veteran TV director Adam Davidson (Dexter, Community, The Following, Hell on Wheels), who has never directed an episode of The Walking Dead, will helm the pilot:
“So that is one way that we’re trying to bring a new directing style to the show—to bring in new visual language to this show. That’s something that Adam is working really hard to bring. He’ll largely be responsible for the different look and feel that makes the show stand on it’s own.”
Codenamed Cobalt, The Walking Dead companion series stars Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey.
On the other side of the camera, Robert Kirkman co-created and co-wrote the pilot with Dave Erickson (Sons of Anarchy, Low Winter Sun), who will also serve as showrunner and executive producer. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more details on The Walking Dead companion series as they surface.
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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