‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Producer Dave Erickson Says Zombies Will Be ‘Infected’ Not ‘Walkers,’ Plus Other Season 1 Spoilers

With the premiere for Fear the Walking Dead just around corner, there are plenty of twists and surprises fans expect to see unfold in AMC’s newest zombie drama. With that in mind, producer Dave Erickson recently shared some spoilers concerning the new show during a TCA panel in Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Part of the new series that separates it from AMC’s original zombie series, The Walking Dead, is how the new series will explore the very beginning of the zombie outbreak.

“We tried to slow burn the story and make it about the anxiety, tension and paranoia that come with outbreak as much as it’s about zombies,” he stated.

Although Fear the Walking Dead is based in the same world as The Walking Dead, Erickson also cleared up some rumors of a potential crossover between the two series.

“Rick’s [Andrew Lincoln] coma was approximately four to five weeks. If you track the trajectory of our story, the starting point is not dissimilar,” he revealed. “There may be a season where we do a major time cut, because that’s interesting to me, [but] the thinking for season 1 and 2 isn’t about, ‘How do we intersect with them or catch up with the original show.'”

Despite the new show diving into the origins of the zombie outbreak, Erickson also discussed how the show would focus more on the families directly impacted by the virus and not go into detail about the government handled the initial outbreak.

“We’re never going to tell the story from the perspective of someone from the CDC or military — not the generals or politicians — but you will see military, and you will get a sense of first responders when they went sideways and what they did to protect their families,” he revealed in the interview. “That’s very much a part of the arc of the season.”

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of speculation on just what the characters will be calling the zombies on Fear the Walking Dead, something Erickson eagerly cleared up.

“We call them ‘infected’ and not ‘walkers,'” Erickson stated, referencing the term used in The Walking Dead to refer to the zombies.

While fans eagerly await the premiere of the new series, ET Online has released an interesting behind-the-scenes video that contains an interview with Kim Dickens. Dickens is set to play one of the lead characters in the series.

Fear the Walking Dead hits the airwaves August 23 on AMC.

[Image Courtesy: AMC]