With The Walking Dead spinoff having already landed a two-season order, talk has now turned to how its story - about a small clutch of survivors in LA - is set to unfold.
During a panel at this weekend’s SXSW festival in Austin, The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman addressed how the show will slot into the existing continuity.
"It's not going to relate to the comics at all,” he told EW. “From the beginning of the show one thing we've heard is, 'What's going on over here or there.' So the intent of the new show is to expand that world and show another corner of the United States and what's happening there.”
He went on to establish exactly when the spinoff series will start, describing it as a prequel of sorts. “The timeline is taking place a little bit earlier timeframe than the original show. Rick Grimes woke up from a coma and was like, 'Oh, man, zombies, weird!'
“We're going to possibly see that unfold a little more in the other show. But I wouldn't call it 'prequel' because the entirety of the show is not going take place before [The Walking Dead]. It will eventually form a path running concurrently."
“It's not derivative,” Kirkman added. “It's standing on its own. You can watch it by itself and get your own experience. But if you are watching both shows there are things like, 'Oh they discovered this, or they discovered that in a different way.’”
The six-episode first season of The Walking Dead spinoff is set to air later this summer, followed by its sophomore season in 2016. Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey star.
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