The Walking Dead companion series will be a prequel, not related to comics

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

Some new details regarding AMC’s The Walking Dead companion series have emerged via its creator Robert Kirkman. The show, sometimes referred to as Fear the Walking Dead or The Walking Dead: Cobalt, will apparently be something of a prequel that examines the origins of the walker apocalypse. Additionally, it won’t at all tie into the comic books on which the original series is based.

Kirkman, who was attending a panel at SXSW, said the following:

It’s not going to relate to the comics at all,” Kirkman said. “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. 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.”

Listen, Robert, if it kicks off before the events of The Walking Dead Season One, Episode One, we can surely call it a prequel for now. Once it catches up to the other series’ timeline, we’ll refer to it as something else.

And while the new show will exist as its own entity, Kirkman explained how there might be some connective tissue between it and The Walking Dead:

One thing that we’re doing with the new show that we’re trying with everything is it’s not derivative… 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.’ There are a lot of things about The Walking Dead world these characters have to learn or figure out to get by. And there may be some things that are discovered in the companion show that haven’t been discovered in the other show yet. So there could be like a thing where, ‘Oh, they encountered a zombie in season 4 in The Walking Dead that could do this and now we know why that was.’ So we’re going to be doing things like that are going to be pretty cool, but for the most part [the two shows] should be able to stand alone.”

The new Walking Dead series consists of six one-hour episodes and will premiere on AMC in late summer. It has already been given a second season order by AMC.