‘The Walking Dead’ Spinoff Casts Kim Dickens of ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ And ‘Gone Girl’
The Walking Dead companion series in development, nicknamed Cobalt, has cast Kim Dickens as its female lead for the pilot, according to Deadline. Dickens most recently played a detective in the critically-acclaimed feature film Gone Girl, and the manager of a brothel in Sons of Anarchy, but this time she takes the lead in Robert Kirkman’s forthcoming zombie apocalypse.
Kim has also appeared on the series Deadwood and Treme among her list of acting credentials, and has an upcoming role in House of Cards. Her other film credits include The Blind Side and The Gift.
Cobalt will be set in the same time frame as The Walking Dead, but centered around Los Angeles rather than Atlanta. Dickens will play a former guidance counselor with a hidden past that comes back to haunt her as she tries to survive the hordes of walkers. EW reported earlier this month that Cliff Curtis landed the male lead role, and his character will be in a relationship with Kim’s in the Walking Dead spinoff. Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey have also been cast to play her children.
Other Cobalt rumors floating around indicate this Walking Dead spinoff will finally explain exactly how this whole zombie apocalypse got started in the first place. It should also be interesting to see how Kirkman and the writing staff portray the west coast reaction to the invasion of walkers, as we’ve already seen southern hospitality hasn’t lasted very long into the apocalypse, with crazy cult leaders and cannibalistic death camps in The Walking Dead.
While Cobalt is still in the pilot stage, it’s hard to imagine anything Robert Kirkman touches not getting a green light with the huge success of AMC’s The Walking Dead. The series is currently on holiday hiatus for Season 5 until after the first of the year, but shows no signs of slowing down its snowballing ratings each season. Ratings have increased each year, peaking at over 17.3 million viewers for this season’s premiere. The cult following of the show has already spawned The Talking Dead, a live talk show which airs immediately following new Walking Dead episodes to discuss the latest happenings with cast members and celebrity guests.
Fans of the original series are notoriously devoted to the characters, threatening in the past to riot if the character Daryl Dixon is killed, played by Norman Reedus. They also started petitions to bring back the latest casualty in the mid-season finale, Beth (Emily Kinney), which is kind of crazy because anyone who has seen the show knows there is only one way to come back from the dead on this show — and it isn’t pretty.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC Feb. 8, but no date has been set for Kim Dickens’ debut in the companion series Cobalt.
