The 30-second trailer doesn’t show much – there are no people featured in it, nor even zombies. But what we do see is a city in ruins, which could represent the aftermath of some major event, or, more likely, the beginning of the zombie apocalypse.
As a sister show to the immensely popular hit show The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead will take a look at the zombie situation from a different perspective and location. The show will be based in Los Angeles, and the first season will cover the month or so period when Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), the protagonist in The Walking Dead, was in a coma. Fans of that show will know that Rick was supposedly out cold for the onset of the zombie takeover, coming to after much of the damage had already been done, luckily having been locked in a hospital room, safe from the walkers. As such, viewers never really got to see how the transformation from normalcy to armageddon went down
Related: Get your first glimpse at Better Call Saul season 2 in new pics
Showrunner Dave Erickson previously revealed that we’d get to see more of the zombie takeover, providing an example of a person seeing his co-worker one day, then contending with him as an creature of the undead the next. And, naturally, the disbelief that this could actually be possible.
It will focus on one particular troubled family, including Kim Dickens (Sons of Anarchy) as the mother, Cliff Curtis (Live Free or Die Hard) as the father, and their blended family kids Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and Alycia Debnam Carey (The 100). The series will focus on how they navigate the murky waters of both familial dysfunction and imminent death and danger. But given that L.A. is typically a place where many gravitate towards for a fresh start, there are likely to be plenty of other surrounding storylines and characters to draw us in.
The Walking Dead team of Robert Kirkman, Gale Ann Hurd, Greg Nicotero, David Alpert, and Erickson will all be involved in this project as executive producers. The show is produced by AMC Studios.
Fear the Walking Dead will debut at 9 p.m. on Sunday, August 23 with an extended 90-minute episode. Season 2, which will air in 2016, will include 15 episodes – good news given that the first season will be a short one, ending by October 4.
