Update 22:32 - The show has cast Ruben Blades as a new series regular. Thanks to Mr. Edmodo for the heads up
Ruben Blades has closed a deal for a series regular role on AMC’s upcoming The Walking Dead companion series, Fear The Walking Dead, which has a two-season pickup. Blades will play Daniel, the father of Mercedes Mason’s character.
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Update 19:46 - Here are some details on a new casting and some details from Robert Kirkman. Thanks to Andrew Barker for the heads up
Kirkman tells us the new zombie drama will focus on two Los Angeles schoolteachers in a relationship: widow Madison (Kim Dickens) and divorced Travis (Cliff Curtis). Both have children from previous marriages: Madison’s high-achieving high-school daughter Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and college flunk-out son Nick (Frank Dillane), along with Travis’ son Chris, who resents his father for the break-up with his mother Liza (Elizabeth Rodriguez). EW can now reveal that Chris will be played by Lorenzo James Henrie, who recently appeared in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and is perhaps best known for trying to bully a young Spock in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot and for a six-episode arc on 7th Heaven back in 2004.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What’s the story you’re telling with Fear the Walking Dead, in terms of whom we’re following and the situation they’re in?
ROBERT KIRKMAN: There’s a large cast in this show, just like there’s a large cast in The Walking Dead. But I think at its core this is a story of Travis and Madison, who are these two schoolteachers that both have kids from previous marriages and are very much in love. And then one of the things that really excites me about this show is the fact that this is a show about two people who are a team, and they do back each other up. They do love and respect each other. They’re a happy couple, which is something that you don’t see a lot of on cable television these days. Usually cable television focuses on infidelity, love triangles, divorces, marriages breaking down—that’s really the meat and potatoes of the drama we mostly deal with on TV. So having this interesting couple at the core of this show, fighting against the backdrop of civilization crumbling and the zombie apocalypse, really is the core of things. They’ve got two sets of kids. It’s an interesting situation.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What’s the story you’re telling with Fear the Walking Dead, in terms of whom we’re following and the situation they’re in?
ROBERT KIRKMAN: There’s a large cast in this show, just like there’s a large cast in The Walking Dead. But I think at its core this is a story of Travis and Madison, who are these two schoolteachers that both have kids from previous marriages and are very much in love. And then one of the things that really excites me about this show is the fact that this is a show about two people who are a team, and they do back each other up. They do love and respect each other. They’re a happy couple, which is something that you don’t see a lot of on cable television these days. Usually cable television focuses on infidelity, love triangles, divorces, marriages breaking down—that’s really the meat and potatoes of the drama we mostly deal with on TV. So having this interesting couple at the core of this show, fighting against the backdrop of civilization crumbling and the zombie apocalypse, really is the core of things. They’ve got two sets of kids. It’s an interesting situation.
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AMC has said that Fear the Walking Dead isn't wholly a prequel. So what is it?
We are loosely covering the period of time that [The Walking Dead's] Rick (Andrew Lincoln) was in his coma in season one. We're able to watch and experience the things that he missed. It's more of a parallel story than a prequel; imagine the opening where Rick gets shot and goes in his coma — that day was probably very close to our day one. We're playing out the idea of what was going on in the country and the world until he woke up, stepped outside and it's welcome to the apocalypse. That's why a "companion piece" has been the phrase used at the network. It's not a prequel in the sense of Better Call Saul, where we're jumping back six, seven years. It does tie very specifically into the pilot of the original. "Prequel" is not the right word; it's kind of its own strange, hybrid thing. I wish I had a better word.
Kirkman has said the origin of the outbreak is something he's never going to reveal in the comics or the flagship series. Is that true here, too?
I had a couple of early pitches that touched on what you're referring to and Robert shut me down. For him, it's never been about what caused it; it's always been about the impact it has on people. Robert's always said — and this is what we try to anchor Fear in is: Your parents got divorced or there are zombies. You didn't get invited to the prom, or there are zombies. Because we're starting a bit earlier and have more of a slow burn into the apocalypse of season one, it gives us the opportunity to really ground our family's problems. We have this highly dysfunctional, blended family and all the issues that they face and they would have faced if the apocalypse hadn't struck, those are the problems we're exploring. The main narrative drive is the conflicts within this family dynamic and how those things are exacerbated by the arrival of the apocalypse.
We are loosely covering the period of time that [The Walking Dead's] Rick (Andrew Lincoln) was in his coma in season one. We're able to watch and experience the things that he missed. It's more of a parallel story than a prequel; imagine the opening where Rick gets shot and goes in his coma — that day was probably very close to our day one. We're playing out the idea of what was going on in the country and the world until he woke up, stepped outside and it's welcome to the apocalypse. That's why a "companion piece" has been the phrase used at the network. It's not a prequel in the sense of Better Call Saul, where we're jumping back six, seven years. It does tie very specifically into the pilot of the original. "Prequel" is not the right word; it's kind of its own strange, hybrid thing. I wish I had a better word.
Kirkman has said the origin of the outbreak is something he's never going to reveal in the comics or the flagship series. Is that true here, too?
I had a couple of early pitches that touched on what you're referring to and Robert shut me down. For him, it's never been about what caused it; it's always been about the impact it has on people. Robert's always said — and this is what we try to anchor Fear in is: Your parents got divorced or there are zombies. You didn't get invited to the prom, or there are zombies. Because we're starting a bit earlier and have more of a slow burn into the apocalypse of season one, it gives us the opportunity to really ground our family's problems. We have this highly dysfunctional, blended family and all the issues that they face and they would have faced if the apocalypse hadn't struck, those are the problems we're exploring. The main narrative drive is the conflicts within this family dynamic and how those things are exacerbated by the arrival of the apocalypse.
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