5 Things We’ve Learned About ‘The Walking Dead’ Spinoff
Comic-Con
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On Saturday, October 5, the yet-to-be-titled The Walking Dead spinoff had its debut panel at New York Comic Con.
Talking Dead‘s Chris Hardwick hosted the panel, which featured chief content officer Scott M. Gimple, co-creator and showrunner Matthew Negrete, executive producers Robert Kirkman and Greg Nicotero, and cast members Aliyah Royale (Iris), Alexa Mansour (Hope), Nicolas Cantu (Elton), Hal Cumpston (Silas), Annet Mahendru (Huck) and Nico Tortorella (Felix). Though the series still doesn’t have a title, we did learn some interesting tidbits about the coming-of-age drama, premiering in Spring 2020, especially for fans looking to see how closely it relates to the flagship series.
Here’s what you need to know.
1. It Takes Place in the Same Timeline as The Walking Dead
While initially it was thought that the new series would be taking place further in the future than the events of the flagship, Gimple actually revealed that its timeline matches up with the original zombie series.
“It begins in the Midwest,” he explains. “This is nearly 10 years after the start of the apocalypse, so this is one of those big things that is happening at the same time as The Walking Dead, but they have no idea about each other.”
2. It’s Connected to Where Rick Went
One of the biggest teases that dropped during the panel was that the community where the main characters are from is possibly related to where TWD‘s Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) was taken in that helicopter in Season 9. The tell is in that three-circled symbol on the side of the copters. “Those three circles, represent three different civilizations that are bound,” Gimple reveals. “And the place they’re from is associated with one of those circles.” Well, that certainly is interesting!
3. …But, They Won’t Be Staying in That Community
As amazing as the news in No. 3 is, don’t expect to learn too much about the community where these characters are from, as they won’t be sticking around. Focusing on a generation of young adults that grew up during the apocalypse, but have been sequestered in a 9,000-person community for most of their lives, Iris, Hope, Elton, Silas, Huck and Felix decide to risk their lives to see what’s left of the world beyond the walls they know so well.
(Jojo Whilden/AMC)
“There’s a quest aspect to this show,” Gimple says. “They have to leave safety and put themselves in a position that they’ve never been [in before].”
4. The Walkers Aren’t Called “Walkers”
Where this group is from, they’re called “empties” instead of walkers—similar to how other spinoff Fear the Walking Dead initially called the dead “infected.” We can only presume that as the group continues their journey, we’ll see them learn some of the other terms used to describe the dead in TWD‘s universe like roamers, biters, lurkers and more.
5. There are Definitely Crossover Opportunities…
But we don’t yet know how long we’ll have to wait to see them onscreen. Since they start their journey in Nebraska, we can only guess it’ll be quite some time before viewers encounter any familiar faces. As Greg Nicotero says, “this is a whole new mythology within the world of The Walking Dead, and it’s very much on its own, but there are points where there is a little bit more of a crossover.”
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
TWD3 premieres Spring 2020 on AMC.
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