Robert Kirkman talks about THE WALKING DEAD spin-off

We’ve talked a bit about as-yet untitled The Walking Dead spin-off a couple of times, but at a recent panel at SXSW we (via Entertainment Weekly) got to hear from its creator Robert Kirkman. First off, they’d like us to refer to the show as a companion series because it’s technically not a spin-off as it has an entirely new cast. Well “spin-off” has more pizzazz so I’ll keep calling it that; not to mention it’s shorter to type and I’m lazy energy efficient.

For all you TWD comic book fans there’s a very succinct answer on how the new show will relate to the comics from the man himself:

It’s not going to relate to the comics at all.

Kirkman spoke further on the reasoning behind the show:

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 time frame 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.

With events on both shows eventually occurring at the same time it would open the door to characters crossing over between them. But while Kirkman suggested there’d be links between the shows, they’d mostly be narrative links for the viewers to pick up on and that the shows would each stand on their own. As he explained:

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 spin-off has received the green light for two seasons consisting of six one-hour long episodes from show network AMC, and is set to air in the latter part of this year.

As for the burning question of what the show will be called, Kirkman replied:

We’re just going to call it Walking Dead CSI: Miami.

He proceeded to whip out a pair of black shades, put them on one-handed, and screamed, “YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” Okay, no he didn’t. But he should have. I like what I’ve just heard, it makes sense. Well TWD fans, what do you think?

And as a bonus here’s our first image from the show showing characters Sean Cabrera (Cliff Curtis), Miranda Thomkins (Kim Dickins) and her son Nick (a monster Frank Dillane) eyeing their very first corpse/potential zombie.

 

Last Updated: March 17, 2015